President Obama Acting as a President and the Nation's CEO Should...
by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny
President Obama acting like a true leader and Chief Executive Officer of the United States of America should act. Infuriating the progressive wing of his party he has signaled his willingness to address Social Security and Medicare cuts.
I'm betting if the rEpublican party power structure digs their heels in the no new tax thingamajig America will toss the prey big wigs into the dust heap of political history. Which is of course exactly as it should be. IMNHO...
Via: Memeorandum
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny
President Obama acting like a true leader and Chief Executive Officer of the United States of America should act. Infuriating the progressive wing of his party he has signaled his willingness to address Social Security and Medicare cuts.
The New York Times - President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects for a long-term deficit-reduction deal, administration officials say.Hm, the left wing of the President's party (the progressive extremists) are mobilizing against his budget proposal. Could it be rEpublicans have their best chance at being part of a rational step in the right directions by working with the President? It sure as hell seems so to me. Now we wait and see how it plays out.
In a significant shift in fiscal strategy, Mr. Obama on Wednesday will send a budget plan to Capitol Hill that departs from the usual presidential wish list that Republicans typically declare dead on arrival. Instead it will embody the final compromise offer that he made to Speaker John A. Boehner late last year, before Mr. Boehner abandoned negotiations in opposition to the president’s demand for higher taxes from wealthy individuals and some corporations.
Congressional Republicans have dug in against any new tax revenues after higher taxes for the affluent were approved at the start of the year. The administration’s hope is to create cracks in Republicans’ antitax resistance, especially in the Senate, as constituents complain about the across-the-board cuts in military and domestic programs that took effect March 1.
Mr. Obama’s proposed deficit reduction would replace those cuts. And if Republicans continue to resist the president, the White House believes that most Americans will blame them for the fiscal paralysis.
Besides the tax increases that most Republicans continue to oppose, Mr. Obama’s budget will propose a new inflation formula that would have the effect of reducing cost-of-living payments for Social Security benefits, though with financial protections for low-income and very old beneficiaries, administration officials said. The idea, known as chained C.P.I., has infuriated some Democrats and advocacy groups to Mr. Obama’s left, and they have already mobilized in opposition. {Read More}
I'm betting if the rEpublican party power structure digs their heels in the no new tax thingamajig America will toss the prey big wigs into the dust heap of political history. Which is of course exactly as it should be. IMNHO...
Via: Memeorandum
Maybe this can be HIS Sister Souljah moment.......That and at the very least he pissed off Bernie Sanders.
ReplyDeletePrey in the next to last sentence should be party. But maybe prey is appropriate. :-)
DeleteYes Will perhaps it is. A good thing, Right? Anybody who pisses of Bernie Sanders deserves high fives!
I don't know if the "cuts" are real (I suspect they aren't) but I support the President on this, even if it is a small first step.
Delete
ReplyDeleteHouse Speaker John Boehner immediately dismissed President Barack Obama’s package of significant new entitlement cuts tied to new tax revenues, calling them “no way to lead and move the country forward.”
The White House says the budget proposal would reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion over 10 years, but it assumes the elimination of the sequester, which would otherwise account for $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction.
Already, Obama’s budget proposal goes farther than many in his own party and base said they would bear by including “chained CPI,” the adjustment that would over time reduce cost-of-living increases to Social Security and other federal benefit programs — effectively, a cut to Social Security benefits by tying them to inflation.
It’s the $9 billion in new tax revenue by setting limits on “tax-preferred retirement accounts for millionaires and billionaires” that Boehner is rejecting.
While I am not a advocate of increasing taxes simply to fund the candy store with everybody's favorite flavor it has went beyond the talking points. We have accumulated massive debt for several reasons, all of which are important to understand if we are to avoid repeating the mistakes that caused the fiscal hemorrhaging in the first place. Having said that, it is clear that both revenue increase and real spending cuts will be neccesary bring the debt under control and proper management.
DeleteUntil such time as people stop demanding things
from their government we will always face the issue of balancing revenue and public interests.
Now, if we would only stay clear of sensless wars
like Iraq, reduce foreign aid and use the money at home, and trim the DoD budget this combined with President's compromise we might just start to gain sound fiscal footing again.
According to a study cited by CNN's Erin Burnett, the government could raise more revenue by raising taxes on the middle-class by 8% than it could by raising them on the wealthy by 100%. If the President really wanted to solve this problem via revenue, he'd knock it off with this nonsense of only the rich having to pony up and give it to the public straight.......Of course he'd also have to stop worrying about the 2014 election for a minute, the dude.
DeleteWhile I agree with the very salient point you are making I ask, what President does tell it to the public straight? GWB to name just one? I am sure you can add to the list of "less than straight" presidents.
DeleteNot that it makes it right for Obama. I'm just saying...
Yeah, you'd probably have to go back to Truman and Ike for some straight talk.
Delete