The President Wants to Call the Right’s Bluff on Spending? Well, Here’s My Opening Ante.
Today, the President stepped to the mic at the G20 summit, hitched up his pants, and called out everyone who has been demanding that he do something about the ridiculous debt he’s racked up in the past year and a half or so.
Somehow people say, why are you doing that, I’m not sure that’s good politics. I’m doing it because I said I was going to do it and I think it’s the right thing to do. People should learn that lesson about me because next year when I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits and debt step-up because I’m calling their bluff. We’ll see how much of that, how much of the political arguments that they’re making right now are real and how much of it was just politics.
Well, okay, Mr. President, I’ll step up. And to show you I’m serious, I’ll give you my opening ante right here.
Cut the budget in half.
Come on, President Obama. I don’t think you have the guts to push your chips forward, but maybe you’ll surprise us all. It shouldn’t be all that difficult. Start with the Department of Education first. Pretty much all of it is dead wood and that’ll save you somewhere around $60 billion. Not a bad start.
Come on. Don’t be shy. Show all us us mouth-breathing Tea Partiers that you mean business. Heck, now’s your chance to be a true world leader and to take away a huge area of concern for Americans heading into the November election. You want a transformational win? Here’s your chance.
And why wait until next year? The Democrats have refused to pass a 2010 budget right now. They won’t even introduce a serious set of numbers. They’re waiting until after the elections to make all those “very difficult choices” so they don’t get slammed by all their campaign contributors who can’t survive without the wide-open spigot of taxpayer cash. I don’t see any good reason we can’t start making those choices tomorrow.
Let’s see how much of your chest thumping today was real and how much was “just politics”. Step up, Mr. President and call my ante now, not next year. You think I’m bluffing? Let’s play.
UPDATE: Eric Cantor’s in, too. Okay, Mr. President. Game on.
UPDATE 2: Steven Spruiell thinks the President may have set a trap as his idea of reducing the deficit will only include massive tax increases. He’s probably right. He’s also right that the President will pull the same game on conservatives he pulled during the health care debate — the old “you have no plan” lie. He could be right. Conservatives can easily counter that by noting that there are two ways to reduce the deficit and one of them puts money back into the economy instead of sucking it out in the middle of an ongoing recession. If they’re smart, they’ll call his bluff very loudly tomorrow.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Why the President Won’t Criticize Bad Stimulus Spending
- The Leader is Vexed
- Loose Lips Sink Budgets!
Category: President Barack Obama, The Economy and Your Money
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I heard about how eloquent Obama was. Then I heard Obama talking to a crowd without his teleprompter and I couldn't believe it. I was on a high school speach team and he wouldn't have been allowed on it. Eloquent? Yeah – with a teleprompter. And Trigger could do math too if Roy Rogers was there to give him the answers.
The Republicans are completely spooked. They sound like Cheech and Chong. "Wow, man, this guy beat John McCain. Wow, man!"
Trigger, when not doing math, could have beaten John McCain. The only reason McCain had a shot was Palin and he diddled the advantage she gave him away and then his people spent the next year playing "Who Wants to be A Back-Biting Prick" with her.
They still remember when they called Clinton's bluff in 98 and screwed it up. Because if you're going to call a bluff you really have to call it. Not call it and then say "Oh! Wait! I'm not sure you aren't right. You might have a point. Because somebody somewhere in the world may not like what I just did and call me mean. So let's compromise. Let's do it your way this time."
Why do you suppose J.C. Watts quit? Suppose he got tired of being trotted out every time some Democrat called the GOP racist? Look! (Pant Pant) Here's our Congressional chairman. He's black (Pant Pant)" rather than Republicans asking just which party was in control of every single elective office in the South during the entire Jim Crow period?
The people, the Tea Parties, the young blood, the Club for Growth, etc. just might save the Republican Party from itself. The Republican Party, per se, is incapable of saving itself.
Look at that old fool, McCain. Suddenly he's for enforcing immigration law, now that he's got a serious primary challenge for the first time since the Civil War. If he gets the nomination he'll be back staffing up with staffers from the Border-Jumpers Aid Bureau of the Mexican Government.