For the administration, a deal is never just a deal. President Obama reaches a deal with John Boehner that includes sequestration, then demagogues the heartless Republicans over the issue, even shutting down the government.
Then Paul Ryan and Patty Murray reach a bipartisan deal to bring some sanity to the budget process. The deal ends sequestration, but one of the only concessions Democrats make is to end the endless extensions of unemployment benefits. This is in December. Now, in January, President Obama is denouncing heartless Republicans over their refusal to break the deal that his side just signed. He even has the temmerity to say that jobless benefits create jobs. (If that’s so, then why don’t all of us get a government check and drive the jobless rate down to zero?)
I think it’s safe to say that it’s time for the dealing to end.
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
