Bob Wise: “in all this quibbling that is going on about what was the language in the November 20 resolution, whether it was 7…”

“in all this quibbling that is going on about what was the language in the November 20 resolution, whether it was 7 years, CBO, or whether you should pay attention to the protection of the programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, I am struck by misdirection. Because if the goal here is to punish the President for not coming forward, it seems to me the wrong people are getting punished. If you want to punish the President, the way to do that is to say that half the Head Start children are not going to be able to go to Head Start? If you want to punish the President you instead deny small businesses loan guarantees, $40 million a day? You want to punish the President, so you go ahead and make it rough on Federal workers after January 26? You want to punish the President, so you deny Medicare vendors getting paid denying services to senior citizens? This is a pretty tough crowd if that is the way you think you punish the President. The fact of the matter is it is like a carrot and a stick. This is the first organization I have ever seen, the carrot and the stick, the old thing where you have got the horse out in front of the wagon, you hold the carrot in front of the horse, then you have got people on the wagon trying to get the horse to move forward. In this crowd if the carrot does not work they turn around and shoot all the passengers on the wagon. The fact is, let us do this out of mutual respect. The thing to do is go back into negotiations.…”