Political Bargaining Quotes
Some politicians tell their constituents that they compromise but not on principles. This is illusory and often disingenuous as well. In a democracy there are many sets of principles that conflict with others just as deeply and frequently held. Even many of the principles of the U. S. Constitution conflict with other constitutional principles. If politicians never compromised on principles and ideals, there would be no operational government unless it were a theocracy or a dictatorship where there were only one set of principles in the society. The more democratic a society is the more its politicians must compromise with their fundamental principles and ideals.
The Republican controlled Senate whose Judiciary Committee and voted overwhelmingly for the President’s nominee for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, but the Senate Republicans refused to the nomination up for a vote unless the Democrats and the President would agree to add an abortion ban on money that was to be appropriated for assistance to trafficked and sexually exploited women and girls. Never before had a nomination like this have been subject to this type of blackmail over terms of legislation on a matter that had nothing to do with the nominee or the cabinet position. However, this was the time one of the extreme periods of hyper partisanship in American History.
Contemplating the effect of a Presidential line-item veto:
In some areas the agencies even agree never to question or fight appropriation requests of the other and the President, Office of Management and Budget, and Congress is often presented with huge appropriations requests that other agencies never seem to have an criticism of. The Armed Services are notorious here. The Army will never criticize a new weapons system the Navy or Air Force wants nor will the Army ever argue that they could produce more with a different idea of their own. In return, the Army is never challenged by the other services in return just as Holbrook describes. In a sense, this has taken most of the competition for good ideas and the spending of public money out of the system and gives a modest amount to all regardless of need, worth, and public payoff.
