The President’s Deficit Plan ("president will be running for re-election as Nancy Pelosi instead.")

NY Times ^ | September 19, 2011 | Ross Douthat

[neverdem]

Last week, in the wake of President Obama’s jobs speech, I wrote that the president seemed poised to campaign for re-election on an essentially centrist policy agenda: A short-term payroll tax stimulus, a plan for tax reform that would close loopholes while lowering corporate rates, and a long-term plan for deficit reduction modeled on the grand bargain that the White House and John Boehner were supposedly close to striking during the debt ceiling negotiations. The president’s goal in 2012, I suggested, would be to try to paint himself as the moderate bipartisan grownup, and dismiss the Republicans as extreme, intransigent, and hyper-ideological.

Based on the actual details of the deficit plan that the administration just released, though, I would like to retract that analysis. Between the size, scope and design of the tax increases and the skimpiness of the entitlement reforms (nothing on Social Security, minimal tinkering on Medicare), it seems that the president will be running for re-election as Nancy Pelosi instead. The White House is essentially proposing to raise taxes on the wealthy (and only the wealthy) in not one but three different ways — higher rates, fewer deductions, and the so-called Warren Buffett tax on millionaires who draw most their income from capital gains — in order to keep our entitlement system almost exactly as it is. Or, more aptly, in order keep our entitlement system almost exactly as it is for a few extra years, since nothing in the proposal is commensurate with the size of our long-term fiscal gap...

[The_Media_never_lie]

By now, even the NYT smells a rat.

[comebacknewt]

The only way this strategy makes any sense to me is if the RATs are planning on a strong right win third party candidate declaring.

If that happens, it becomes a turnout election for the RATs. As long as there base shows up, Obambi would be re-elected with a plurality.

[CitizenUSA]

A $15 trillion national debt at 5% simple interest is $750 billion per year in interest payments alone. Nevertheless, many people still don’t understand the scale of the problem we’re facing. The entitlements can’t go on, because the rich aren’t THAT rich. It wouldn’t matter if we confiscated everything they owned. It’s a proverbial drop in the bucket with $1.5 trillion deficits for as far as the eye can see. I think people think it can go on forever, because the nation got away with it in the past. To top it off, the Obama administration apparently knows zilch about economics. The fact that they are even considering raising taxes in the face of a recession (depression?) proves they are either completely oblivious to our economic reality or are intentionally trying to bring it all down around us.

[CitizenUSA]

Well, Heaven help us if the man is reelected. Seriously.

[Huskrrrr]

Queen Hillary to the rescue...

[rfp1234]

("president will be running for re-election as Nancy Pelosi instead.")

...and his new job will be dancing with a male partner on DWTS.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”Another way to look at this — which I find somewhat more persuasive — is that for all his brave rhetoric about shared sacrifice and grand bargains and hard choices, when it comes to make actual, specific, detailed policy proposals, President Obama has always shied away from putting his name on anything that 1) acknowledges the actual scale of our deficit problem and 2) takes on his party’s interest groups in any meaningful way. So why should we expect his election-year proposals to be any different? In either case, it looks like we have our campaign theme for Obama 2012: “Tax the rich, and Medicare forever.”

All MSNBC shows in a double celebration of
1) Obama’s ‘new’ fighting tone, and
2) the official end of DADT in the military...

His phony veto threat over cuts to entitlements without hiked taxes on the rich appear to be targeted at the deficit commission, and they assume he is re-elected to veto the recommendations imposing 'the trigger' cuts to the military. Congressional Republicans were not planning any new Deficit reduction bills during this session. Their load was fired with the debt limit deal, now it is up to the next congress and POTUS to decide what path to take (and taxes go up automatically anyway).

How long you think he will play to his liberal base before he pee..s them off again because he really wants something passed?

[C210N]

it seems that the president will be running for re-election as Nancy Pelosi instead...

So, if world nut daily has their way, the dem primaries will have zer'0 as Pelosi against Palin... what a hoot!

[Huskrrrr]

Pelosi has a pair...Odumbo doesn’t.

[One Name]

You may be closer to the truth than you realize.

[Tennessean4Bush]

He has no prayer of being re-elected. Plus, he will cause the dems to lose about 8 senate seats and 25 more house seats.

[Tennessean4Bush]

He has no prayer of being re-elected. Plus, he will cause the dems to lose about 8 senate seats and 25 more house seats.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks sickoflibs.