Come on. Democrats have always been willing to compromise on spending. But, that's not enough for Republicans. They want to make every budget battle into a "Do what we say or else your pathetic little country gets it!" ransom situation over non-budgetary issues.
Not entirely true.
First off, note that McConnell has already allowed votes for ~41 bill amendments -
that's about 3 times the number of bill amendments that Reid allowed votes on during the entirety of 2013 and 2014. And yes, that
includes democratic-proposed and republican-proposed amendments. Now, we'll have to see if McConnell's open amendment process promise is kept throughout the next 2 years, but he's certainly honoring it right now.
Secondly, the democrats were only willing to negotiate on spending during the last congress if it was done at a truly convenient time for them. It was always a matter of - you pass a debt ceiling increase with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING attached to it - and then MAYBE we'll think about cutting spending somewhere. Don't get me wrong, I realize the consequences of not raising the debt ceiling, but attaching a couple of lower-tier republican ideas to the raise could have gone a long way toward us not getting into the last-minute action situations we were frequently in during the last congress. And then of course, there's the Warren-led base that won't support any entitlement reform (which, aside from defense, is where any serious spending cuts that will solve our long-term problems need to come from) no matter what.
And to be clear, with entitlements, I'm talking about things like raising the retirement age or reducing benefits for the wealthy - Not the Crappy Paul Ryan Plan.
