Ezra Klein – Wonkbook: Are Republicans overreaching? Or just negotiating effectively?

These are the questions I’m asking myself…

From the Washington Post:

In Washington, we’re getting closer and closer to a government shutdown. There’s now talk of a continuing resolution to push the deadline back by a couple of weeks, but Republicans will only accept it if it includes many of the cuts they’re asking for in their full spending bill. A shutdown isn’t a sure thing yet, but many who were dismissing the idea of it a month ago are taking it seriously today.

Republicans and Democrats, it seems, govern rather differently. Republicans are proving themselves willing to do what liberals long wanted the Obama administration to do: Play hardball. Refuse compromise. Risk severe consequences that they’ll attempt to blame on their opponent. The Obama administration’s answer to this was always that it was important to be seen as the reasonable actor in the drama, to occupy some space known as the middle, and to avoid, so much as possible, the appearance of dramatic overreach. This is as close as we’re likely to come to a test of that theory. In two cases, Republicans have chosen a hardline and are refusing significant compromise, even at the risk of terrible consequences. Will the public turn on them for overreach? Applaud their strength and conviction? Or not really care one way or the other, at least by the time the next election rolls around?

via Ezra Klein – Wonkbook: Are Republicans overreaching? Or just negotiating effectively?.