I love politics and the politics of deficit reduction

Back on June 13, this blogger shared his deficit reduction plan:
“I came up with a 65%/35% split between spending cuts and tax increases and came up with $300Billion in deficit reductions.  Big hits were felt in Defense, non-Medicare Health, Medicare, Civilian Retirement, Aid to Low-Income Families, and Social Security.  Those that had their budgets maintained or increased included: education, transportation, children’s healthcare, and military servicemen medical benefits.  Tax increases will be felt across the board of individuals and many corporate loopholes will be closed.  Are these cuts staggering?  Hell yeah.  Would they solve our financial problems?  Tough to say, with these deep cuts a double dip recession could ensue which would further reduce revenues.  The point of my budget was to demonstrate that to be intellectually honest our politicians are going to have to piss EVERYBODY off.” 
Today, details of President Obama’s plan were ‘leaked’ to the media and no one can call his plan timid or tentative.  Mr. Obama is looking at $3-$4Trillion in deficit reduction and he has targeted many of the same items I noted above; I knew he was a genius.  A brilliant strategy by Mr. Obama as he has clearly outflanked the Republicans as he now comes across as a bigger deficit hawk than the self-proclaimed fiscal conservatives.  Better yet, by putting this offer on the table on the condition that the package includes significant revenue generating changes, he has boxed Boehner (when “hell no” means maybe) and the rest of the GOP leadership in a box.
But wait, there’s more.  Speaker Boehner now finds himself trying to come to agreement with the President and do what’s right for the nation while his Brutus and Cassius, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan, maneuver in the shadows to block his deal with Obama.  Watch your back Boehner, or these SOB’s will really give you something to cry about; which brings us to Senate Minority leader Mitch “Frank Burns” McConnell.  McConnell who would love nothing better to bloody the President’s nose to elevate his chances of becoming Majority leader while fending off intraparty attack of his leadership from Tea Party hero South Carolina’s Jim DeMint.
But my absolute favorite part of this debt ceiling story is the sudden emergence of President Obama’s Plan B: The 14th Amendment.   Section 4 states: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.  In other words, is the concept of the debt ceiling unconstitutional?  Now isn’t that ironic?  The Tea Partiers love to go on about the Constitution and how Obama continues to trample all over it.  And the sweetest part of it all: the only people who could challenge Obama’s position abolishing the debt ceiling would be Congress, and it is doubtful that a joint resolution suing the President would ever pass.
Damn, I love Politics.

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