I give credit where credit is due. I was very encouraged that Obama FINALLY grew a pair of balls! He did what he should have done years ago. I don't care if the Republicans are aginst it and won't vote for it, THEY WILL PAY FOR THAT WITH THE VOTERS if Obama does this right and continues to hammer this home!
Lets hope he keeps this up or I'll be back to singing the blues!
Huffington Post Tuesday September 20th, 2011
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's broad new debt reduction proposal has, at least momentarily, managed to placate a community of progressive activists, Democratic operatives and congressional offices who have grown increasingly despondent over the course of his presidency.
On Monday the White House outlined more than $3 trillion in deficit reduction measures that included $1.5 trillion in tax increases, $1 trillion in war savings and $580 billion or so in mandatory program savings. What stood out, however, was what wasn't in the plan at all: changes to the payment structure of Social Security or the eligibility age of Medicare that the president had voiced support for as recently as August.
Democratic sources familiar with the drafting of the proposal insist that the 80-page document, which included a $470 billion job creation program, is largely consistent with the philosophical blueprint the White House has pursued during the past year. But they also didn't beat back suggestions that Obama and his team are more eager than ever to draw contrasts with Republicans on issues such as tax policy or entitlement reform. Perhaps the best example is the president's pledge to veto any deficit reduction plan that cut Medicare benefits but didn't include a dime of tax increases -- a threat that came in response to House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) insistence that tax hikes be left completely off the table.
"I was very pleased with the president's veto statement. I am a supporter of this," said Howard Dean, a former Vermont governor and DNC chairman. "Are there a few things that maybe should have been done differently? Maybe so. But overall, this is a very good place to start and now we just have to make damn sure we don't make any of the kind of irresponsible concessions that Republicans are going to ask for."
Reserved optimism with the president's deficit reduction plan did, indeed, seem to be the order of the day. Not just from Democrats who appreciated the slate of administration policies (there were critics among both progressives and centrists), but because for an administration that has gained a reputation for making preemptive concessions, the proposal represented a welcome departure.
"From everything I see, this seems to be pretty good stuff," said James Carville, the longtime Democratic consultant who just days ago urged the president to panic and start firing staffers. "Realistically, how much you will end up with, I don't know. But if you start there, you will end up somewhere better."
Carville said he believed the type of proposals that made it into the plan would help bolster Obama's reelection prospects.
"The most popular thing you can do to cut the deficit is to raise taxes on people making over a million dollars. That's not just a sop to the Democratic base, that is a sop to roughly 65 percent of the country," Carville said. "So, good. If this signals something new, then great."
continue:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/19/obama-debt-plan-super-committee_n_970681.html
Lets hope he keeps this up or I'll be back to singing the blues!
Huffington Post Tuesday September 20th, 2011
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's broad new debt reduction proposal has, at least momentarily, managed to placate a community of progressive activists, Democratic operatives and congressional offices who have grown increasingly despondent over the course of his presidency.
On Monday the White House outlined more than $3 trillion in deficit reduction measures that included $1.5 trillion in tax increases, $1 trillion in war savings and $580 billion or so in mandatory program savings. What stood out, however, was what wasn't in the plan at all: changes to the payment structure of Social Security or the eligibility age of Medicare that the president had voiced support for as recently as August.
Democratic sources familiar with the drafting of the proposal insist that the 80-page document, which included a $470 billion job creation program, is largely consistent with the philosophical blueprint the White House has pursued during the past year. But they also didn't beat back suggestions that Obama and his team are more eager than ever to draw contrasts with Republicans on issues such as tax policy or entitlement reform. Perhaps the best example is the president's pledge to veto any deficit reduction plan that cut Medicare benefits but didn't include a dime of tax increases -- a threat that came in response to House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) insistence that tax hikes be left completely off the table.
"I was very pleased with the president's veto statement. I am a supporter of this," said Howard Dean, a former Vermont governor and DNC chairman. "Are there a few things that maybe should have been done differently? Maybe so. But overall, this is a very good place to start and now we just have to make damn sure we don't make any of the kind of irresponsible concessions that Republicans are going to ask for."
Reserved optimism with the president's deficit reduction plan did, indeed, seem to be the order of the day. Not just from Democrats who appreciated the slate of administration policies (there were critics among both progressives and centrists), but because for an administration that has gained a reputation for making preemptive concessions, the proposal represented a welcome departure.
"From everything I see, this seems to be pretty good stuff," said James Carville, the longtime Democratic consultant who just days ago urged the president to panic and start firing staffers. "Realistically, how much you will end up with, I don't know. But if you start there, you will end up somewhere better."
Carville said he believed the type of proposals that made it into the plan would help bolster Obama's reelection prospects.
"The most popular thing you can do to cut the deficit is to raise taxes on people making over a million dollars. That's not just a sop to the Democratic base, that is a sop to roughly 65 percent of the country," Carville said. "So, good. If this signals something new, then great."
continue:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/19/obama-debt-plan-super-committee_n_970681.html
