Nice try

The president called the leaders of Congress to the White House to see if the two sides could agree on ending the government shutdown.

Afterward, Republican Speaker John Boehner said, “All we’re asking for here is a discussion and fairness for the American people under Obamacare.”

A discussion, and fairness under Obamacare, which sounds reasonable. And his Democratic Senate counterpart Harry Reid said, “Fine, we’ll go to conference. All we want you to do is open the government. We said we’d be happy to talk about discretionary spending we’ll talk about parks, we’ll talk about health care, we’ll talk about anything you want to talk about.”

Which ALSO sounds reasonable. So we have a deal.

“And he says no,” added Reid.

Oh I forgot – this is Congress, so agreeing on something means you don’t have a deal.

So based on what we’ve just heard – both sides are ready to negotiate, but Democrats will only negotiate if the government is reopened, and Republicans will only negotiate while the government is shut down. And Republicans would only end the shutdown if there’s a delay in Obamacare, but since health care policy is one of the things Democrats would want to negotiate…

That would be like telling your wife – OK we can discuss whether you should have spent $300 on that pair of shoes, after I march you back to Nordstrom and make you return them.

I’m trying to remember what her response was…

“HA HA HA” SLAM

That was pretty much it.