Supposedly Obama is going to make a speech about the deficit. It should be interesting to see if he is tired of being punked by the conservatives. Will he just keep negoitating against himselfe. Will he try to point out how we shouldn't just keep cutting benefits for the poor and middle class to balance the budget while we keep tax cuts for the wealthy. Will Obama take a position to support most Americans or does he think it best to keep showing he is a moderate by compromising and taking a position slightly more moderate to the steadily moving rightward GOP? *********** Op-Ed Columnist The President Is MissingBy PAUL KRUGMAN What have they done with President Obama? What happened to the inspirational figure his supporters thought they elected? Who is this bland, timid guy who doesn’t seem to stand for anything in particular? I realize that with hostile Republicans controlling the House, there’s not much Mr. Obama can get done in the way of concrete policy. Arguably, all he has left is the bully pulpit. But he isn’t even using that — or, rather, he’s using it to reinforce his enemies’ narrative. His remarks after last week’s budget deal were a case in point. Maybe that terrible deal, in which Republicans ended up getting more than their opening bid, was the best he could achieve — although it looks from here as if the president’s idea of how to bargain is to start by negotiating with himself, making pre-emptive concessions, then pursue a second round of negotiation with the G.O.P., leading to further concessions. And bear in mind that this was just the first of several chances for Republicans to hold the budget hostage and threaten a government shutdown; by caving in so completely on the first round, Mr. Obama set a baseline for even bigger concessions over the next few months. But let’s give the president the benefit of the doubt, and suppose that $38 billion in spending cuts — and a much larger cut relative to his own budget proposals — was the best deal available. Even so, did Mr. Obama have to celebrate his defeat? Did he have to praise Congress for enacting “the largest annual spending cut in our history,” as if shortsighted budget cuts in the face of high unemployment — cuts that will slow growth and increase unemployment — are actually a good idea? Among other things, the latest budget deal more than wipes out any positive economic effects of the big prize Mr. Obama supposedly won from last December’s deal, a temporary extension of his 2009 tax cuts for working Americans. And the price of that deal, let’s remember, was a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts, at an immediate cost of $363 billion, and a potential cost that’s much larger — because it’s now looking increasingly likely that those irresponsible tax cuts will be made permanent. More broadly, Mr. Obama is conspicuously failing to mount any kind of challenge to the philosophy now dominating Washington discussion — a philosophy that says the poor must accept big cuts in Medicaid and food stamps; the middle class must accept big cuts in Medicare (actually a dismantling of the whole program); and corporations and the rich must accept big cuts in the taxes they have to pay. Shared sacrifice! I’m not exaggerating. The House budget proposal that was unveiled last week — and was praised as “bold” and “serious” by all of Washington’s Very Serious People — includes savage cuts in Medicaid and other programs that help the neediest, which would among other things deprive 34 million Americans of health insurance. It includes a plan to privatize and defund Medicare that would leave many if not most seniors unable to afford health care. And it includes a plan to sharply cut taxes on corporations and to bring the tax rate on high earners down to its lowest level since 1931. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center puts the revenue loss from these tax cuts at $2.9 trillion over the next decade. House Republicans claim that the tax cuts can be made “revenue neutral” by “broadening the tax base” — that is, by closing loopholes and ending exemptions. But you’d need to close a lot of loopholes to close a $3 trillion gap; for example, even completely eliminating one of the biggest exemptions, the mortgage interest deduction, wouldn’t come close. And G.O.P. leaders have not, of course, called for anything that drastic. I haven’t seen them name any significant exemptions they would end. You might have expected the president’s team not just to reject this proposal, but to see it as a big fat political target. But while the G.O.P. proposal has drawn fire from a number of Democrats — including a harsh condemnation from Senator Max Baucus, a centrist who has often worked with Republicans — the White House response was a statement from the press secretary expressing mild disapproval. What’s going on here? Despite the ferocious opposition he has faced since the day he took office, Mr. Obama is clearly still clinging to his vision of himself as a figure who can transcend America’s partisan differences. But if you ask me, I’d say that the nation wants — and more important, the nation needs — a president who believes in something, and is willing to take a stand. And that’s not what we’re seeing. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/opinion/11krugman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion
i agree with one thing, now is the time to start arguing that tax cuts need to expire. you have two years to make this argument while the republicans will be arguing about medicare vouchers
Paul Ryan released his plan. Even if it's nutty and unrealistic, Democrats haven't brought out their own solution. The balls in their court...
Oh, I guess you thought I scooped the international news media about Obama's plane missing or something? haha
It will be interesting to hear what Mr Obama has to say Wed. Personally I think the President has laid a nice little trap for Mr Ryan and his ilk.
Don't hold your breath. Is there any doubt that all politicians are chronic liars and the nation is by the 1%, for the 1% and of the 1% oligarchs? People realized that they are fooled by Obama. Do they realize they're doomed to be fooled again by the next they vote for with maybe different, better planned rhetorics?
I really want them to swing hard left and spark some genuine debate. The only bipartisan mood the President's deficit reduction commission had in common was its revulsion on both sides. I didn't agree much with it, but letting it drop to the bottom of the discussion punted the urgency everyone is supposedly feeling yet aren't acting upon.
Maybe you're one of the smuggled who counts the money for the smuggler, as indicated by your question?
The President is missing? There can be only one explanation... The President has been kidnapped by ninjas. Only one question remains.... Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President? Spoiler
I suppose there is a chance, but given the paucity of audacity by Obama I thihk not. I suppose the Grand Old Tea Party will propose say $1 trillion in spending cuts to the poor and middle class and Obama will counter with $700 billion in cuts to progrmas like Medicare and Food Stams etc. and then will proclaim victory. One commentator I read thinks that Obama has the GOP cornered. The Tea Party morans might have bought the whole deficit feint hook line and sinker. but the real GOP power brokers are not willing to allow the US to default. It would cost them trillions and so the threat to not raise the debt ceiling is no threat at all. It is an extreme game of chicken and if the public would blame the GOP for the complete chaos that would result from a US government general default on bonds and obligations, the GOP and the whole conservative game would be up for a generartion.
