Tactical

The negotiating "tactics" being used in DC should be familiar to us gun owners.

And the response to our side saying, "no more" is pretty much the same.

The Democrat Totalitarian wing of our elected government has played a "we get everything we want and you lose something you want without actually getting anything" game for a long time and gotten away with it.

The pie analogy for gun rights is similar.

With Obamacare, they took the whole pie all at once and seem baffled that we're upset.  At least with guns they'd been lulling us with taking small slices.

The original bill was passed in both chambers of Congress without a single Republican vote.  Not one.

Why is there shock that the Republican party, gaining in strength in the House since that vote, refuse to acquiesce to demands they begin supporting a law they unanimously opposed at the bill stage and can look to fresh faces who are seated congresscritters BECAUSE someone who voted for that law was replaced.

The most common complaint I hear from conservative types about Republicans is that they never put up a fight.  Especially since what we of the more conservative bent would like to see is an actually smaller government; not merely a government that grows more slowly.

We can thank the media and the mouth breathing low information voter for the state of affairs.

Let's test.
Your budget last year was $100.  Party A wishes to increase your budget to $115.  Party B objects to the increase and will only agree to an increase of $5.
Was your budget cut?

In a nutshell, that's the state of our government.  The above situation where a 5% increase is a "draconian cut" because a 15% increase was advocated.  It's only a cut if the percent increase is not keeping up with inflation.

Maths be hard and shit.  How long before an annual 3% increase results in a doubling of cost?  Do you even know how to begin calculating that?  The most cumbersome method is to start with 1 and multiply it by 1.03 and keep multiplying the result by 1.03 until you get past 2 in your result.  The answer is a mere 24 years of 3% growth to double the cost.  15 years at 5%.  Less than 8 years at 10%.  Adds up fast, doesn't it?

Since the real inflation rate seems to be about 5% if you include everything and not just what the government stats include, it will costs twice as much to buy everything you bought today in fifteen years.  How big was your raise last year?  Did you get that every year?  Was it 5%?  Because if it's not, you're taking an effective pay CUT every year.  See how that works?

The thing is, inflation is affected greatly by the policies of the people in DC.  They pass laws which artificially alter supply and demand by making some things cheaper and others more expensive.

Increase the cost of something, demand goes down.  Decrease the supply of something, prices go up.  Decrease the price, demand goes up.  Etc...