War against entitlements is over (if you want it). Guess what? They don't.
by digby
So, it looks as thought the endless obsession with the deficit and relentless drive to cut the safety net is finally over, at least among Democrats. Fix the Debt is rumored to be folding its tent and there is a new optimism in liberal circles that we may have finally turned the corner on this pernicious set of Grand Bargain policies.
Not so fast:
Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, argued that raising taxes on the wealthy is a fair-play way toward short-term deficit reduction, rather than a fix for the U.S.' long-term debt problem. She added that economic growth -- not wealth redistribution -- is an equally high priority for alleviating income inequality.
"Our view is that we should be focusing on economic growth in the immediate term, and long term deficit reduction," she said...One of the things I think we were particularly successful at [this year] was resetting the terms of the fiscal debate. We did a big paper this spring called 'Time for a Fiscal Reset,'" Tanden said. "We kind of took a step back and saw that deficit projections were coming down, and unemployment projections were not coming down at the same velocity."
"I want to be 100 percent crystal clear in this: the country has long term deficit challenges, so we believe that we should address those, and put good ideas around both taxes and entitlements on the table," she said. "But now I think the priority for the country should be economic growth."
Every time a Villager talks about "entitlements" and deficits in the same breath, another rich jackass gets his (right) wing.
I guess I don't get why everyone's talking about these comments. They're exactly what the president's been saying for the last five years --- and this is the result:
That worked out so well, you can see why they don't feel any need to change it.
It's holiday fundraiser time ...
