— Or something like that.
Here we go again:
Superficially Republicans and Obama are at loggerheads, but basically they are working in tandem. The sequester that they jointly negotiated in 2011 is traumatizing a country already in the throes of economic depression. As bad as sequestration is, it’s been made worse in the minds of the public by politicans and a “mainstream” media determined to induce in the public every last possible drop of panic.
They will likely twist this country’s arm until it cries Uncle, which which in this case means accepting cuts to earned-benefit programs paid for with our tax dollars.
Obama for one thing is simply too callow for the job. Even as most respectable economists are now finally coming clean about the way that austerity is counter-indicated amid an economic meltdown, Obama remains in thrall to the austerity myth peddled by a circle of charlatan advisors.
If Obama decided to go empirical, he wouldn’t be able to overlook the economic wreckage austerity has visited across southern Europe. But this very callowness often seems to make him incapable of reversing a disastrous course even when its folly has been made loud and clear. Easier to just burrow back into that circle of charlatans.
Now it may be, however ,that despite Obama’s enthusiasm about working with the Republicans to cut so-called “entitlements,” their refusal to accept even the most minimal revenue enhancements will queer any deal. On the other hand, it’s very likely that Obama will, in the end, surrender completely–if surrender is the right word. It is and it is isn’t. Obama has been avid to cut “entitlements” since his first day in office, but surely, after acquiescing to the Republicans again and again, would like a little token reciprocity.
If he does sign these cuts into law, the Republicans will turn around in 2014 and pin blame for them on Obama, and the Democratic party will be taken to the woodshed by voters. There is absolutely no deficit-reduction to be had by cutting Social Security, and the country has every right to ask what the hell is going on.