What Are We Waiting For?

It's just possible "the American people" are finally gettin' hip to the centrist bullshit of Both Sides Do It; They're All The Same; A Pox On Both Your Houses.

I'm not saying the Dems are all perfect angels and the Repubs are all complete dicks.  And I'm not going to put up the long list of examples showing how Repub Policies are harmful and how the combination of Republican Platform plus Republican Obstruction is actually intended to take their Gubmint-Is-Bad slogan and turn it into a self-fullfilling prophecy.

Right now, it's Sequestration.  But almost without exception, It turns out to be pretty simple:  We get a deal when The Repubs decide we get a deal.

Ezra Klein at WaPo:

The bottom line on American budgetary politics right now is that Republicans won’t agree to further tax increases and so there’s no deal to be had. This is not a controversial perspective in D.C.: It’s what Hill Republicans have told me, it’s what the White House has told me, it's what Hill Democrats have told me. The various camps disagree on whether Republicans are right to refuse a deal that includes further tax increases, but they all agree that that’s the key fact holding up a compromise to replace the sequester.

But it’s unpopular for Republicans to simply say they won’t agree to any compromise and there’s no deal to be had — particularly since taxing the wealthy is more popular than cutting entitlements, and so their position is less popular than Obama’s. That’s made it important for Republicans to prove that it’s the president who is somehow holding up a deal.

The narrative is changing.

hat tip = Democratic Underground