Rep. Tiberi (R-OH): 'No Faith In This President To Lead on Anything'

With President Obama busy demagoguing, Republicans are moving toward the conclusion – too late, of course – that they should stop relying on the President for negotiations and compromise. With regard to spending cuts and the debt ceiling, Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-OH), chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on taxes, said to The Hill, “Clearly, having presidential leadership on any big issue makes it a heck of a lot easier to get it done.” But, he added, “we don’t have faith in this president to lead on anything. I’m saying it still can be done with key Democratic leadership in the legislature.”

There’s a reason Republicans have moved away from the idea of negotiating with Obama: he’s made clear he’s completely uninterested in negotiations. Aside from his blustery announcement over the weekend that he would “not negotiate” over the debt ceiling, an administration insider told The Hill that Obama will “definitely not” come to the negotiating table. “Full stop,” said the official. Instead, as Jen Psaki, Obama’s spokeswoman, said, “that means taking the argument on the road, taking the time, as he did before the fiscal cliff deal, to explain the stakes.”

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News, and author of the upcoming book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).