Compromise is crucial to making a deal

The federal government is shuttered. Are there round-the-clock intense negotiations to find a way to reopen? Are leaders proposing new innovative ways to turn the lights back on? Is the President tirelessly practicing "his art of the deal”?

No, none of that’s happening.

The Senate convenes just long enough to vote on both Republican and Democratic proposals, knowing neither will pass. After the gavel, they flee to sympathetic shout-shows to point fingers hoping Americans will blame the other side.

The House approved a partisan “take it or leave it” continuing resolution and left town for a two-week vacation. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said “We’ve done our job.” They haven’t.

The President fumes more about the NFL playing “sissy football” than he worries about the 44 million Americans who’ll see monthly premiums double for Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage if subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of the year. Democrats refuse to provide votes for a continuing resolution unless the subsidies are re-negotiated. That’s the stalemate.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Johnson solemnly swear they'll negotiate in good faith to keep the ACA subsidies, despite Senate and House Republicans trying to kill it more than 50 times.

When Democrats see these promises they think of Lucy holding the football and Charlie Brown falling flat time after time. They worry Trump will gleefully let the subsidies expire to finally put the ACA in its grave.

I’m certainly not an authority on jump-starting the federal government, but I have negotiated some tough agreements. Here are some suggestions.

All the decision makers need to be at the negotiating table. If one is AWOL, a deal is impossible. That means the president needs to be off the golf course and at the table.

Negotiating in public doesn’t work. Both sides will spend time performing or their base instead of working on real solutions.

I learned early on, if you demonize the other side, you eventually need to make a deal with the devil. When you make that deal, your own constituency won’t trust it and will regard you as selling out. Democratic leaders should stop calling Trump “unhinged, unstable, and a fascist.” Trump needs to stop calling Democrats “the enemy within.”

In negotiation the adage is true. “We should listen twice as much as we speak.” They don’t have to agree but they have to listen instead of thinking of a quick response. Silence is a powerful negotiating tactic because it often tempts the other side to reveal more than they want to.

Compromise shows strength. That strength allows things to move forward. Compromise doesn’t mean sacrificing principles. It means giving a little to reach a lasting agreement.

What would America’s Founders say about a government shutdown? I asked AI. “Though they could not foresee the specific mechanism of a government shutdown, the founders would likely view it as a failure of compromise and a dangerous result of political factionalism.

In other words, “None of this is how it works.”

Bruce Lear taught for 11 years and was an Iowa State Education Association Regional Director for 27 years until he retired. He lives in SIoux City,. BruceLear2419@gmail.com