President Obama, having ceded the initial ground on deficit reduction to Republican Paul Ryan, answered the Ryan plan in a speech this week. The President, in broad brush strokes, offered that we need to attack the deficit in a more balanced way than Paul Ryan has suggested, including cuts but also including tax increases for the top wage earners. It appears to me that the President still needs to put some detail into the plan, but there was enough there to paint a stark contrast with the Republicans. From the New York Times:
“They want to give people like me a $200,000 tax cut that’s paid for by asking 33 seniors to each pay $6,000 more in health costs? That’s not right, and it’s not going to happen as long as I am president,” Mr. Obama said, his only line that drew applause.
The President was accused by Republicans of partisan rhetoric, but it is hard to take that charge seriously after the pounding they have given to the President on the deficit issue. I did find it odd that the President invited Chairman Ryan and Chairman Camp to the speech, and then ripped their jocks off, but I guess you can say that he wasn’t disparaging them behind their backs.
The Republican proposal is not really a deficit reduction plan, but rather a tax cutting plan that promotes Republican orthodoxy. The President has laid down a political marker, and the upcoming political battle will be defining for the Presidential race in 2012.
Bill Manzi.com 
Your Honor,
This “speech” was the worst I have ever heard from an American President. He proposes to resolve every fiscal problem by raising taxes utilizing voodoo accounting, outright lies (remember transparency?) and playing class and racial politics.
This time these character flaws were abundant throughout his talk. Even Joe Biden found it tedious.
America is in trouble at all levels thanks to this incompetent.
As far as Paul Ryan is concerned, I hope he and his associates can stay the course bring the enormous debit under control. I keep my fingers crossed.
Jules
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Your Honor,
Your entry, a collection old Democratic talking points assembled to support a horrible idea espoused by the President.
Now we enter the horror of inflation. Gas prices are going up (maybe $5.00/gal by summer), food trucks are being hijacked do to food inflation.
So it begins, inflation coupled with high unemployment – Stagflation. IT’S HERE NOW.
Neither you nor your good friend, the president, have addressed the problem.
Your friends at the state level are doing no better.
So what do we do now, your Honor?
Jules
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Jules,
The answer to your question is “we solve the problem”! Ryan’s proposal has plenty of holes, but I give him credit for making it and pushing the debate. But you simply cannot get where we need to go without a mix of revenue added to all of that budget cutting. Sorry Jules but the numbers just don’t add up. Additionally I really do not see what the argument is when this idea is brought into the mix. I do concede that the President’s speech was just that, a speech, that did not really put together a real plan. It was an enunciation of values, but it needs some meat on the bones. Republicans start with no revenues, Democrats start with no cuts, the deal is where it always is, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE! Read Krauthammer, which will be a post later today or tomorrow, and tell me what you think.
Bill
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Your honor,
1. The president is in Campaign mode. He is smarmy and insulting. Wouldn’t be so bad if he did not think of himself as a healer.
He’s off the reservation when his leadership (if he had any) is needed.
A little wisdom; Compromise is not the solution to much.It generally combines the worst of the ideas. If we do not do the Ryan thing then we are in deep doo doo.
Jules
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Jules,
Just for the record the Ryan proposal, by his own accounting, does not solve the deficit problem. In fact under Ryan deficits continue for the foreseeable future. Problem is that the Republicans are not about cutting the deficit. They are about cutting taxes. As I mentioned in my earlier post the numbers rule. Ideologues just HATE numbers. Compromise works on this issue because you do have to deal with entitlements. But you must also include additional revenues, as anything without them does not solve the deficit problem and cannot work. That is if you really want to erase the deficit.
Bill
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Your Honor,
Numbers are precise and have no party or religion. Nothing the Obama, Pelosi and Reid (the ideological gang you describe) can do if they want to be elected again (their only goal right now) is to delay the bad effects of the deficit for a while. They don’t know how to solve the problem.
Jules
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