"President Obama and the House speaker, John A. Boehner, faced off in the Oval Office."

[ProSense]

A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN....

With a budget deal in place, we're starting to hear from some of the relevant players -- or, at least, officials with direct knowledge of what the relevant players were up to -- about the developments as they unfolded behind the scenes.

In particular, it seems there was one line Democrats simply wouldn't cross.

At one crucial moment in the game of chicken over a looming shutdown of the United States government, President Obama and the House speaker, John A. Boehner, faced off in the Oval Office. Mr. Boehner, a Republican heavily outnumbered in the room by Democrats, was demanding a provision to restrict financing to Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortions. Mr. Obama would not budge.

"Nope. Zero," the president said to the speaker. Mr. Boehner tried again. "Nope. Zero," Mr. Obama repeated. "John, this is it." A long silence followed, said one participant in the meeting. "It was just like an awkward, 'O.K., well, what do you do now?' "
That meeting broke without an agreement.

The sane senior Democratic aide relayed the story to ABC News, and added, "There were a good 10 minutes of just sitting there of everybody looking at each other.... (Republicans) realized that kind of the gig was up. They weren't going to get (defunding for family planning) included. It wasn't going to happen. The president and Sen. Reid were prepared to say, 'This bill will go down if you make this about social policy.' That was the line in the sand."

I'm certainly glad the line was drawn somewhere, and this was a good place to draw it.

<...>

[WCGreen]

1. If they stopped at Planned Parenthood, why did they give up so

much back in '09 when they had the majority...

Compared to what could have been accomplished, that's a mighty wee accomplishment.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. So, our Pres. CAN draw lines, then?

So now the question is.....why has he not drawn more of them and when will he start drawing more along real Democratic values?

[Sherman A1]

5. Precisely

[roguevalley]

16. because he's running for president and needs the pro choice

independent soccer moms. he didn't need votes then but now he will toss a bone to keep some constituent group happy.

[Clio the Leo]

22. He drew a line between Tripoli and Misrata ......

..... he drew a line between Gitmo and DADT.

He drew a line between passing a bill that helps 30 million Americans, or moving on to the next thing.

Are we only counting the lines we approve of?

[Citizen Worker]

25. Pencil was broken, the pen ran out of ink or the chalk was too short to hold onto.

[young but wise]

3. K&R.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. Whatever!

Cheers!

[DerekG]

7. Abortion? Makes sense.

After the Democrats/Republicans succeed in making serfs out of the whole lot of us, abortion is gonna be pretty goddamn popular.

[bhikkhu]

10. Its Women's health care.

Abortion was already defunded years ago.

[Atman]

8. Whew...Obama can draw a line.

As an artist, I always hear "Oh, I wish I could do that! I can't even draw a straight line!" Of course, virtually anyone can draw a straight line, they just have to stop the silly "Oh, I can't even draw a straight line" crap and just do it. Good on Obama. He's figured out he can draw a line.

[bahrbearian]

9. Too little , too late

[JoePhilly]

11. Protecting Planned Parenthood was only important last week.

And if Obama caved on that, it would have been a big deal ... that's what we heard around these parts.

Now that PP has been defended, its no big deal.

The kick is up ... its straight, it seems long enough ... wait, wait ... the goal posts, they are MOVING. OMG, the kick falls short again.

[young but wise]

13. +1

[Keith Bee]

12. I love hockey!

GO CAPS!

[zigzag69]

14. There's a sucker born every minute.

- P._T._Barnum

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tanyev]

26. Heh.

:thumbsup:

[buddysmellgood]

15. You know, when a corporation gets in that kind of trouble, they just change

the name and reorganize. Obama should have accepted the PP cuts in exchange for the repeal of the Bush tax cuts. Then we could change the name of PP to Vagina Havers and fund it with the restored funds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmQhCWfXu2o&feature=player_embedded

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

17. Obama won and Boehner lost bigtime in the eyes of his Party.

Sad more "progressives" can't give Obama credit, but no matter, it's the actual accomplishment that counts.

[MNBrewer]

21. This was an unmitigated disaster for the Democrats

Just watch and wait.

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

23. you're wrong, sorry.

[craigmatic]

19. If he did that then he could've done that for other programs but I bet they didn't.

[MNBrewer]

20. When does he have to re-draw it? Doesn't this "compromise" expire soon?

[vroomvroom]

24. A Line will Only Be Drawn when it not involving Big Money

This is why things like Healthcare is open to be negotiated and given away (too much money for people to make from it) while things like Planned Parenthood is more likely to be safe since there is really no money for big business in it.

[Search4Justice]

27. Anonymous sources have..

... as much credibility as their name suggests.