An elephant and a donkey meet in the road.."No I won't budge", they each say.
Donkey - The sky is falling, its an emergency!
Elephant - Pay for it! You must pay to reconstruct that sky!
An intractable problem - what if they change sides?
Donkey (playing he's an elephant) - Right, its an emergency, but it can't go on forever, or does it? Well there is some urgency, so maybe we can pay for some of it..
Elephant (playing he's a donkey) - Some do need out help right now, so maybe help them..
Each budges just a little bit. Then a little bit more.. (iterative)
Suppose they show up with face masks and try to play each other's role - for one day.
Budget choices are hard. Why is there outcry over sending our dollars to the Middle East for oil, or over an imbalance of payments to China (Yet - we do those things anyhow..)
Yet - for something both sides feel we need - a federal unemployment extension - they hold fast to their positions. Is it political platform flag-waving (yes). Should they get over it and do what's right for people (yes).
Postscript: Friday's jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor:
+83,000 private sector jobs created in June
-220,000 jobs lost overall in June
=> net 125,000 jobs lost in June
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Obama - nobody's listening to you about immigration - this is a diversion. Please pay attention.
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