The President’s Budget: A Metaphor, Not A Scary Serial Killer Weapon.

Here come the President’s budget plan and — surprise! — its chief weapon will be an overused scary metaphor.

President Obama this week will lay out a new approach to reducing the nation’s soaring debt, proposing reductions in spending on entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid and renewing his call for tax increases on the rich.

In an effort to go on the offensive in the battle over government spending, Obama will look for cuts in “all corners of government,” senior adviser David Plouffe said on several Sunday talk shows.

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Contrasting the president’s approach with what Republican leaders have put forward, Plouffe said Obama will use a “scalpel” and not a “machete” as he seeks to preserve funding for education and other areas he considers crucial to the country’s long-term economic success.

The last time the President employed his vorpal scalpel, he sent it forth to snicker-snack $100 million from a budget of over $3.4 trillion, so we obviously shouldn’t expect too much from his proposal.

What we can expect, however, is the return of one of his very favorite rhetorical weapons. The Scalpel of Budget Shaving has been an Obama mainstay since he first employed it against John McCain’s budget hatchet in the third Presidential debate two and a half years ago. Since then, he’s compared his weapon of choice to the Republicans’ far more brutish chainsaw and machete (twice).

Hmm…but wait. A thought occurs to me. What do hatchets, chainsaws, and machetes have in common? More specifically, when we think of someone who might swing a hatchet, chainsaw, and machete, what image comes to mind?

Gosh! Could it be that the President has been subtly comparing his calm, scientific, healing way of handling the budget to the Republican’s homicidal and maniacal predilections? Is he saying not just that Republicans want to kill old people but that they want to brutalize them in the most gore-spattered manner possible? And when they’re done with the old people, who will be next? The children? You? Me??

Goodness! That’s a fine use of the new rhetorical tone in politics, wouldn’t you say? Nothing screams “civility” like an overwrought metaphor that slyly compares your opponents to Jason Voorees or Michael Myers. Of course, when all he has to give is more spending, bigger government dysfunction, and higher debt, it’s hard to see what else he could do.

Other Posts of Interest:

• No, Living Within Your Budget is Certainly Not Sexy
• What Would It Take to Balance the Budget? A Lot Less Work Than We Think
• Boehner Drops the Debt Hammer: It’s a “Stand-Alone” Vote

Tags: Big Government, President Barack Obama

Category: President Barack Obama, The Economy and Your Money