Even as the political battle mounts over federal spending, the end result for federal policy is already visible — and clearly favors Republican goals of deep spending cuts and drastically fewer government services.I feel fairly confident that they are happy with that outcome. After all, the GOP blatantly telegraphed what it was going to do from the beginning (and also signaled that they would raise the debt ceiling in the end) so it's not as if the White House can possibly be surprised. This then, must be the preferred outcome. Huge spending cuts on one side with a few small face-saving loophole closing on the other. indeed, with the way the Democrats are talking, I'm not sure they're even all that invested in that --- Harry Reid said
President Obama entered the fray last week to insist that federal deficits can’t be reduced through spending reductions alone. Federal tax revenue also must rise as part of whatever deficit reduction package Congress approves this summer, he said. Obama has been pushing to end a series of what he calls tax loopholes and tax breaks for the rich.
But even if Obama were to gain all the tax-law changes he wants, new revenue would make up only about 15 cents of each dollar in deficit reduction in the package. An agreement by the Republicans to accept new revenue would be a political victory for Obama because “no new taxes” has been such an article of faith for the GOP.
The entire concept of trading an increase in the debt limit, a routine bill that usually passes with grumbling but little else, for a transformation of government, is Grover Norquist’s most long-hoped dream realized.
First of all, the LAT writes that this would be the third major GOP victory in less than a year, the extension of the Bush tax cuts and the 2011 appropriations bill being the other two. Second, it confirms once again that $200 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid have been agreed to by the White House, although we still don’t know what those cuts signify. And third, it clarifies the numbers I laid out yesterday, with the Administration having reduced their revenue demands from the already-small number.
Barack Herbert Hoover Obama
From today’s radio address:Government has to start living within its means, just like families do. We have to cut the spending we can’t afford so we can put the economy on sounder footing, and give our businesses the confidence they need to grow and create jobs.Yep, the false government-family equivalence, the myth of expansionary austerity, and the confidence fairy, all in just two sentences.Read this and this to see why he’s wrong. This is truly a tragedy: the great progressive hope (well, I did warn people) is falling all over himself to endorse right-wing economic fallacies.