Obama talks about the Grand Bargain, and the campaign permits it to be published after the newspaper pitched a fit. Via Digby:
It will probably be messy. It won’t be pleasant. But I am absolutely confident that we can get what is the equivalent of the grand bargain that essentially I’ve been offering to the Republicans for a very long time, which is $2.50 worth of cuts for every dollar in spending, and work to reduce the costs of our health care programs.
And we can easily meet — “easily” is the wrong word — we can credibly meet the target that the Bowles-Simpson Commission established of $4 trillion in deficit reduction, and even more in the out-years, and we can stabilize our deficit-to-GDP ratio in a way that is really going to be a good foundation for long-term growth. Now, once we get that done, that takes a huge piece of business off the table.
[…] Now we’re in a position where we can start on some things that really historically have not been ideological. We can start looking at a serious corporate tax reform agenda that’s revenue-neutral but lowers rates and broadens the base — something that both Republicans and Democrats have expressed an interest in.
As Digby points out, this is the bargain Obama offered the Republicans the last time:
T]he major elements of a bargain seemed to be falling into place: $1.2 trillion in agency cuts, smaller cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients, nearly $250 billion in Medicare savings achieved in part by raising the eligibility age. And $800 billion in new taxes.
I don’t know about you, but this is only a “bargain” to millionaire politicians. I’m not interested in sacrificing myself on the altar to the deficit gods. Nope. Particularly when cutting government services during a recession is a surefire way to stall a recovery, just like 1937 when FDR gave into the Republicans on deficit reduction.
Those who do not learn from history, etc.
The profound tragedy of the election is that this only works with an Obama win.
And yet supposed lefties are still backing this fraud.
Oh – and will continue to back him, even going so far as backing his Grand Bargain. Frauds, all of them.
Has any one run the numbers on how much cutting out younger retirees — the newly turned 65’s through whatever age the pols have in mind– will actually “save” Medicare anything?
It would seem that, aside from people who have not had insurance and have been putting off medical care for some months or years, most Medicare recipients enter the program in the prime of their older years. If the revenue is lost from people of between 65 and whatever age the pols think is “logical,” the young and mostly healthy seniors, how will that affect the remaining members in the program? Especially those who have already been putting off health care?
Is Obama crazy? Dumb? So intent on sucking up to Corporatists he can’t see reason?
Or, is Obama now one of the eager and proud exponents of “Hurry Up and Die” as we’ve known it from the Repubs?
Obama is, as I’ve long written, one hell of a Trojan Horse. He ran as a Dem because that’s how he could gain power; he is not a Democrat in any manner or thinking.
Has Digby stopped having having comments? It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to her site.