The Art of Negotiation
-- Government Style
The president said; “I won’t negotiate over paying our
bills”; an oxymoron. By saying he won’t
negotiate over a certain point IS negotiating…he is laying down a negotiating
point. It is obvious that he was
negotiating by the end terms. By
negotiating he got what he most wanted; continued spending and gave up very little.
The proper answer to that would have been; I won’t negotiate
the raising of the debt limit without some measures to address the cause and
solutions to an ever growing national debt of $17,000,000,000 debt.
If that had been done, both sides would have staked out the
first position. Then the only question
is who benefits by not blinking.
For this answer we have to find out what each side really
wants.
So what is it that both sided wanted? The president wanted more spending and the
opening of the partially closed government.
If he did not get what he wanted was he comfortable with the
consequences of both parties not blinking which would have been default.
What did the republicans want? Unfortunately they assumed that they would
get the blame for the default and this was their main “Want”! Whether this is true or not, they believed
it, so, in the end they blinked.
The key point in any negotiation is whether or not you are
prepared to walk away from the deal. The
president was comfortable with walking away from the deal and defaulting, the
republicans were not.
Unfortunately for the country it is an unequal
negotiation. The president is perfectly
willing to see the country hurt for political gain. The republicans are not, or at least they do
not want to be demonized by the media.
The president touted the fact that our deficit is the lowest
in years. I don’t quite see how this is
possible, but if it is it is like an overweight person saying; “I know that I
am 100 pounds overweight and it will eventually kill me, but look on the bright
side; I am gaining weight at a slower pace than before!”
How does this play out?
It will take a tough dynamic leader to sell the tough solutions
demanded, but in the end we will likely
not resolve the debt/default question until we actually default. That will come when nobody will continue to lend
us money to pay the interest on our debt.
Without tough solutions, this will happen.
Will we be the Roman Empire or not. Stay tuned.
With the stakes this high it should be interesting.
