The Dane Geld

From CNN:

House Republicans have added a measure aimed at limiting contraceptive coverage to the spending bill coming up for a vote Saturday night, a spokesman for Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas, told CNN.

A senior House leadership aide confirmed that development.

The so-called “conscience clause” would allow employers and insurers to opt out of preventative care for women which they find objectionable on moral or religious grounds. That prominently includes birth control, which most insurers are required to provide for free under current Obamacare rules.

With this move, House Republican leaders would give any employer or group health plan the ability to opt out of contraception coverage for the next year. That time frame syncs up with the larger measure in which this is included: a one-year delay of Obamacare provisions not yet in effect.

So, to update, the House previously demanded, as the price for not shutting down the government, " a one-year delay of President Obama’s health care law and the repeal of a tax to pay for the law before approving any funds to keep the government running." The Senate has rejected that demand--and the House raises the ransom demand. And then, in a few weeks, they will demand that the Senate and the President effectively adopt the Romney campaign's economic plan, as the price for the House not causing the United States to default on its obligations.

There really is no point to negotiating is there? I mean, for Democrats. If they cave to the GOP, this will be the new normal--the reckless Republicans threatening Armageddon unless they are allowed their way even when they lose elections. There is simply nothing in it for the President or the Senate. As Rudyard Kipling knew, it is better not to ever pay the the Dane Geld than to pay and try to break the custom:

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"

Shut it down.