Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi must have taught Roy Cooper lessons in effective negotiation tactics. They are each using an old negotiating tactic from a story by O. Henry:

 “The Ransom of Red Chief.”

You can find it at https://www.loa.org/images/pdf/Henry_Red_chief.pdf   

Spoiler Alert: In the next paragraph I’ll tell you the story. You may want to read the story first.

Two desperados living on the American frontier needed money. They decide to kidnap the 10-year-old child of a wealthy banker. Abducting him was easy. Then they took him to a hideout a few miles from town. They wanted $2,000. In those days that was a lot. They didn’t want to hurt the kid, so they put up with all his demands for recreation, accommodations and  entertainment at their expense. The kid was quite a handful. Then they sent a ransom note. The boy’s father rejected it but said he would take the kid back if the criminals paid him $250. These desperados paid the reverse ransom.

Schumer/Pelosi/Cooper missed the point. Taking this type of hostage does not work. The Schumer-Pelosi tactics on the Covid-19 Relief Package 4.0 won’t work. They want a 3 trillion dollar package to be paid for by our great grandchildren. Republicans have offered only ½ trillion dollars. The two sides are at loggerheads. There is nothing in the Republican package that Schumer/Pelosi actually oppose. But they are taking items from the GOP plan hostage to get the other $2 ½ Trillion. They may get nothing and the people may suffer.

Roy Cooper learned this tactic on the knees of Schumer-Pelosi. He wanted Medicaid Expansion and really high teacher pay. So he repeatedly vetoed teacher pay raises (the GOP offered 4.9%) and he vetoed Medicaid Transformation, neither of which he actually opposed. He took these provisions hostage because it wasn’t enough. He ended up getting no pay raise for teachers (except step increases) and a much delayed Medicaid Transformation. That delay will harm the state.

It is time for serious people who care about the country and the state to take a crash course in effective negotiating tactics.