Back in the day, my mother was an antiques dealer. She got great stuff and great deals at yard sales. Her trick was to pile up everything she wanted, offer a price. If they rejected it flat out, she'd shrug, stick her money back in her pocket and walk away. 75% of the time, they'd see her walking away and say, "If you'll pay me an extra $25 (or some amount) I'll do it." It was still usually less than she was willing to pay and it was far from uncommon that she'd load up the antiques, drive to a friend's shop and sell them what she'd just purchased for double what she'd paid.
The lesson is a simple one. It's okay to let something go. It's okay to end a negotiation and walk away. Even an important one. It tells everyone that you'd rather have no deal than a bad deal. Frankly, it tells you that. I don't need your stuff, I don't need what you've got.
Intransigent Republicans in the House have given Democrats a HUGE gift. Let's take it.
And let's walk away from negotiations. We don't have to say anything beyond "Republicans weren't negotiating in good faith." Walk away from the deal with a regretful shrug of the shoulders. By killing their own plan, Republicans have told everyone in the world that they're not serious about even trying for a compromise, for a deal. That means we have options we didn't have before.
As a negotiating tactic it works but more than that, it changes the negotiator's psychological perspective. A negotiation has a force of its own, it's own momentum and inertia. It's easy to get trapped by the idea that you have to negotiate to a conclusion. In an effort to get to that conclusion, you start getting reckless, you end up offering more than you intended. Walking away changes your relationship with the negotiation. You start seeing other options and possibilities. What if we don't get a deal now? Could we deal in six months? Maybe I decide I can live with the consequences of no deal. Maybe I decide to wait and see what changes in the next six months.
Walking away from the negotiation liberates you as a negotiator from the self-reinforcing dynamics of a negotiation. A negotiation works as a feedback loop - we're engaged with the person we negotiating with, they will us and we're isolated from events around us. Walking away and suddenly, we're free to reject the deal, to re-examine the contours of the situation and re-assess what we're willing to deal on. Walking away from the talbe now means we might realize that we want all taxes to go up and we're okay with that. We might be willing to just let the original deal from 2011 play itself out and we're ready to respond to any criticism with "We wanted a deal to avoid the negative consequences but Republicans refused to negotiate in good faith."
So, if you're a Democrat, walk away from the negotiating table and do it now.