TStephens wrote:
Obama's little editorial piece paints his views as just that: fiscally conservative. I don't know enough about the man to like/dislike his views but the editorial he wrote was nothing but good sense, and thus good publicity.
Eh? I tend to agree with Totem on this one.
Obama's piece "appears" to make good sense, because it hits all the right points. Let's be fiscally responsible. Let's both increase taxes *and* decrease spending! What a concept!
But notice *which* things he singles out. He's increasing taxes on the "wealthy". That's playing to the standard Dem party line. Get 50 billion dollars by rolling back those tax cuts to the millionaires out there.
Ah. But wait! He's going to compromise with decreases in spending, right? But which programs do you think he's targetting? I notice he didn't mention things like wellfare, medicare, or any of the traditional Liberal spending projects at all. Nope. He zero's in on "pork". Ok. We'd all like to get rid of pork, but he wants to target NASA? And the Alaskan bridge?
This isn't so much a compromise as a "you give us half, and we'll take the other half from you". If the Dems want the Reps to roll back their tax cuts, let's see them give up on actual programs their constituents care about, instead of pork projects which at best will affect both sides equally.
That's where I see the switcheroo happening. He's essentially masking a proposed increase of taxes targetted specifically at "the wealthy" by appearing to compromise with program cuts that affect everyone equally (that's assuming he's as willing to cut programs in his home state as he is willing to cut those in other states). So even if we don't assume some imbalance in the pork program cuts, that's hardly a compromise, right? It's the Republican's giving something, and the Dems offering that both parties give some more.
It's cleverly written. I'll give him that. But it's hardly a compromise at all. How about we forget the tax stuff and just trim the pork instead? Seems like an even better way to go? Or how about he actually ante-up with a program that his Liberal constituents really care about?