At the moment, the Boehner plan cuts almost one third less does the Ried Plan. That is according to Congressional Budget Office.
At one point, President Barack Obama offered John Boehner deeper cuts in Social Security and Medicare than the Republicans were asking in connection with a possible debt ceiling compromise. True, the Ryan Budget provided cuts ub Medicare that dwarfed what Obama offered. The llarge offer by Obama included cuts that dwarfed what John Boehner is after.
Boehner and his slippery ally Eric Cantor both claim that they want to curb Obama's spending. But when given an opportunity, they opt for a small curb. Their claim that Obama can simply spend what he weants without their legislation is built on the assumption that most voters know less than third graders about how government works. They are probably right there. And the media will not correct their massive distortions for fear of being attacked.
The Obama plan did include revenue enhancements, which the Republicans in the House forced Boehner to reject. But the Ried olan has no revenue enhancements. Why not take the larger cuts package and be done with it?
The reason is that the Republicans want to force President Obama to eat his words about vetoing a short term plan. When Obama backs off, he will look weak to most voters unless he uses the opportunity to explain why he took a big hit for our country. They also want to use the debt crisis again to shape the 2012 election.
Boehner is pretty sure he will get this opportunity to humiliate Obama. Some of his House Republicans object to ever raising the debt ceiling, but they will be brought around to seeing the wisdom of administering a slap to the African American in the White House.
The Speaker is reasonably sure of picking up at least 4 votes of conservative Democrats in the Senate. Ben Nelson is under intense pressure in Nebraska to come closer to TEa Party views. It is even possible that many more Senate Democrats will buckle in their support for the President. Boehner has said that as the crisis intensifies, the Senate Democrats will fold like a cheap suite.
President Obama will probably conclude he will have to take a serious hit for the good of his country. Will he use the opportunity to show how the Republicans generated this crisis for political reasons? Will he show that he gave them opportunities to cut even more, which they rejected for political reasons?
The time has come for Obama to tell the public that he has repeatedly tried to improve the political climate in Washington but that his efforts were almost uniformly rejected by Republicans. Now they have risked permanent damage to our political system,
economy, and credit rating. Indeed, their recklessness might still bring about damage to the nation's credit rating.
Obama seems to lack the temperament of a Harry S Truman, but he needs to acquire the Truman outlook and start blasting the extremist House of Representatives.
Truman was successful in turning things around and winning re-election in 1948.
This time, Truman tactics are again necessary, and the stakes are much higher. It will be an uphill battle because the GOP has a massive communications operation, has all sorts of expertise in cognitive science and political psychology, has the Citizens United decision that was designed to magnify corporate power, has Voter ID voter suppression laws in 17 states, and also the advantage of a bad economy which had almost been destroyed by its policies. This is why the GOP fights stimulus legislation and wants more cuts; boith policies assure that recovery will not come until 2012.
People are frightened and worried about their shrinkling investments and home values, jobs, pensions and futures. In such troubled times great numbers seek emotionally reassuring messages such as the Republican claims that cuts create jobs and that somehow Obama and the Democrats brought about all these problems.
This is not a time to reason with demagogues who play with people's fears and work to make things worse for political gain.
I remember Truman in 1946, 1947, and 1948. The Republicans owned most of the press, but he still got his message out. Today, the mainstream media is terrified of critiquing the lies and wild claims of the Republicans. Obama cannot even count of a fair airing of his views.
What is left of American progressivism needs a leader, and Obama is the only person in a position to step up and do what must be done for the country. My being too assertive, he runs the risk of endangering his re-election. But much more is at stake than his personal victory.