I’ve mentioned before that every political act carries a
price. It is pretty clear the price the Republicans are paying for their
attempt to hardball the President. What
is not so clear, but probably will become so shortly, is the price the President
and the Democrats are going to pay for having so humiliated their opponents in
this battle.
It is OK to win a battle, in fact that is the whole point, but
it is always a bad idea to humiliate your opponents as well, as the Democrats
did by not allowing any small face-saving sops to the House Republicans in the
final bill. It would have cost them almost nothing to allow, for example, the
cancellation of the medical device tax, which the Republicans wanted but in
fact is favored by a majority of both Democrats and Republicans anyway. But
once again their hubris got the better of them (and the President’s jibe at the
Republicans today “Win an election!” didn’t help).
The President hopes to get several more signature pieces of
legislation through Congress as part of his legacy, starting with immigration
reform. My bet is that at least for the
next few months, anything proposed by the President is dead on arrival in the
House, just because he wants it.
A little magnanimity in victory toward one’s opponent is
always a good tactic, especially if one is going to meet that opponent again.
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