Donna Gentile O’Donnell, a member of the law school board and Democratic Party strategist discussed the stand-off over budget and tax policy as a guest on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” on Dec. 6.

O’Donnell, who joined MSNBC commentator and Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson on the program with host Ed Schultz, said a divided Republican caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives is putting House Speaker John Boehner in a bind in tax policy negotiations with President Obama.

Although Boehner seems amenable to negotiating, O’Donnell said, he faces stiff opposition from more conservative factions who hope to control the Republican Party.

“The House caucus has got to permit Boehner to put the cards on the table,” O’Donnell said. “The president has been abundantly clear he’s available to compromise. What he’s not going to do is lay those cards out first.”

Dr. O’Donnell is the principal of O’Donnell Associates, a former president of Franklin Health Trust and a former Philadelphia deputy health commissioner under former Mayor Ed Rendell. She was elected the first trustee emerita of the Drexel University College of Medicine and serves on the Drexel University Board of Trustees, as well as the law school board.