Budget triangle
by digby
White House stenographer Richard Wolffe was just on Matthews talking about the budget. He says it is a political document designed to appeal to independents who don't like all the bickering blah,blah, blah. Matthews wondered whether or not this was meant to appeal to people worried about their grandchildren's future or the 55 year old guy who has lost his job. Wolffe said the president isn't talking to the unemployed.
Matthews: Ok. Let's talk about the unions out there, the SEIU, the Steelworkers people like that. The unions, out there the one's who care about the unemployed, who want to get a larger membership... Are they going to be happy about this?
Wolffe: No. No they're not. There are going to be too many community grants that
Matthews: CBGs, community block grants...
Wolffe: they just don't want to see that go down. But actually that kind of criticism is going to help this president. Two thirds of deficit reduction comes from spending cuts.
Matthews: ok, what about infrastructure ... putting people back to work replacing the smell of decay, with the smell of construction as I've said many times?
Wolffe: It's about choices. They're still going to have some money. Republicans are still going to say cut the whole thing.
If one accepts that Wolffe has a very good relationship with the White House and dutifully reports their political calculus (a decent assumption since he makes his living as the official chronicler of Obamaism) then this has the stench of triangulation all over it.
I know there is a strong push to ensure that Obama isn't tagged with the "t" word and I expect that many of his people truly don't like the concept. But Wolffe's reporting certainly suggests that is exactly what they're doing nonetheless.
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