Posted on 04/11/2011 7:24:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Barack Obama has belatedly discovered that Americans want to see reductions in government spending. How else to explain David Plouffe’s appearance on a series of talk shows yesterday announcing that the President would unveil a new proposal this week to counter Paul Ryan’s roadmap on entitlement reform? However, it seems as though Obama still hasn’t figured out the scale of the problem:
In an effort to go on the offensive in the battle over government spending, Obama will look for cuts in “all corners of government,” senior adviser David Plouffesaid on several Sunday talk shows.
Although Obama’s health-care law is projected to curtail Medicare spending over time, “we have to do more,” Plouffe said Sunday, marking the first time the administration has made an explicit commitment to changes in entitlement programs for the purpose of deficit reduction.
Contrasting the president’s approach with what Republican leaders have put forward, Plouffe said Obama will use a “scalpel” and not a “machete” as he seeks to preserve funding for education and other areas he considers crucial to the country’s long-term economic success.
Well, scalpels are fine when the problem comprises a small part of the overall whole. The federal budget deficit now runs $1.6 trillion, and we’re borrowing 40% of all the money we spend each year. If 40% of a patient had gangrene, to use Plouffe’s analogy, using a scalpel to trim off the edges would leave one with a dead patient.
Recall that Barack Obama just delivered a ten-year projection for his spending plan with the FY2012 budget proposal last month. His plan didn’t envision any systemic reform of entitlement spending beyond his fanciful estimations of ObamaCare on Medicare. With his base already in revolt over the tax deal (and afterward, Libya), Obama had no desire to engage in a debate on entitlements. Ryan’s plan has put Obama on the defensive, and the White House is playing catch-up.
Now that Obama is acknowledging the need for budget cuts and the role of entitlements in the deficit/debt crisis, he’s stuck. The White House has to offer a plan that actually cuts entitlement spending enough to close the deficit gap, or they have to raise revenues. The question isn’t whether a machete gets used, it’s a question of where they plan to use the machete — on entitlement spending, or on taxpayers? Now that Obama has engaged on the issue, those are the only two choices he has.
Update: Jen Rubin pronounces the Obama do-over on the budget “pathetic.” I don’t disagree, but it’s useful as an indicator of just how much the paradigm has changed.
No one is offering a Machete for entitlement reform.
This pretender & criminal, nobama, blows more taxpayer money IN HISTORY over his 2+ years and, then, starts acting like he wants to control the deficit. This is just a continuation of Bizarro world.
nobama hates you, hates your family, hates Free America, hates Americans, hates the Constitution and hates the Bill of Rights. nobama is a hate crime foisted upon the USA. nobama is the Destroyer.
nobama is purposefully and intentionally undermining the USA. nobama should be in a cell in Leavenworth.
I just wish someone would discuss “un-entitlement reform” concerning the billions that are paid to people that have NEVER paid one red cent into the system.
Exactly.
And the first thing to notice, is that Obama has joined the debate now, and he has essentially done so on the Republicans' terms.
If the R's play their cards right, they can focus the debate on Obama's insane deficit, and how it hurts us in all its various ways.
And if the R's really play their cards right, they can continue to squeeze the Senate Democrats between the GOP-controlled House and and the Obama WH. As a matter of electoral strategy for 2012, pushing a wedge between Obama and the Congressional Democrats could be a key factor in getting rid of this awful president.
The weakest parts of the plan? There are two:
1. The fact that the Dems will be dragging up all their usual "puppies and kittens" stories, and the R's not wanting to seem mean; and
2. "Conservatives" such as those who inhabit FR threads, who shout and moan and stomp away because they didn't get everything they wanted all at once.
Call me when they go past “machete” and start talking “chainsaw.”
}:-)4
Now Obama is acknowledging the need for budget cuts.After spening trillions the scalpel is useless in a chainsaw fight.
Actually it is more like chainsaw time.
Actually it is more like chainsaw time.
Imagine if a bunch of tea party folks brandished machetes at their next rally. Think the Dems and their fawning media wouldn’t have a cow over that?
Great idea. But make them out of cardboard, else the whole lot will be arrested on some charge of endangering the public or causing a disturbance.
What Plouffe is going to offer is a big serving of BS, as usual.
Would it be racist to suggest Obama’s already reneging on the deal? What is it with Democrats that keeps them from acting in good faith? This is similar to when Bush told Daschle they’d get along fine, as long as Daschle didn’t lie to him. Daschle promptly stepped before the press ... and lied about their meeting.
Dr. Obama is a Specialist at Microcutting and Macro Spending.
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