Falling all over itself to praise the kindler, gentler, “centrist” Paul Ryan.
And the “more” liberal media outlets will point out that the Simpson-Bowles plan is so much more reasonable.
Remember two years ago, when I said the White House was behind the America Speaks town hall to push Social Security and Medicare cuts, and I was attacked for making shit up? Good times!
It’s good to be a cynic. It’s also good to be aware of when events have overtaken the best laid plans of mice and men. Two years ago Obama didn’t buy into Simpson-Bowles any more than he buys into it today. Did he allow Cass Sunstein and others to try and ‘sell’ it to the American people? Sure he did. But where did that get the Blue Dogs? He also goaded Mitch McConnell into sequestering and sunseting 25% of the federal budget. Where has that gotten good old Mitch and the rest of the Republicans? Far too many people don’t give Obama the credit that he deserves. Many of them are the same people who give far too much credit to our failed Secretary of State. Tsk tsk.
The fringe-right pick of Ryan for VP is the best thing that could have happened to the president and the Dems in general. Now, Obama has so much space to move to the left that Simpson-Bowles is irrelevant.
Somebody please explain how the Ryan proposal to slash Social Security and hand out coupons to substitute for Medicare/Medicade is gonna sell in places like Florida, or even Wisconsin for that matter.
The deficit not withstanding, who in their sane mind would want to do away with the Affordable Care Act—regardless of its shortcomings—and replace it with the Romney/Ryan republican budget? The R, R, and r’s (small r intended) thankfully are on the losing end of a very shitty stick!
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Obama won’t move to the left. Ryan’s plan is so far to the right that Obama will simply tell us the Simpson Bowles plan is reasonable.
Perhaps not Susie. If the Dem’s go for protectors of Medicare and Social Security they can’t afford nuance in an election season. If they straight forward make this an issue of trust for electoral advantage (the Republicans score zero on that core issue), and the Congresscritters follow suit, the space for the Grand Bargain is gonna get cemented over. We can hope that this kills Simpson Bowles anyway. Moreover the Ryan gambit was an our base vs your base play. Can Obama really weedle around with the left in this environment? I am hoping that Ryan’s intervention will force the Dem’s to line in the sand these retirement programs and paint themselves into the correct corner for once.