Today in the New York Times, Ross Douhat opines as to why there is a method to their [Republicans'] madness:
"Barack Obama wants a right-leaning deficit deal. For months, liberals have expressed frustration with the president’s deficit strategy. The White House made no effort to tie a debt ceiling vote to the extension of the Bush tax cuts last December. It pre-emptively conceded that any increase in the ceiling should be accompanied by spending cuts. And every time Republicans dug in their heels, the administration gave ground. "
He continues, "The not-so-secret secret is that the White House has given ground on purpose. Just as Republicans want to use the debt ceiling to make the president live with bigger spending cuts than he would otherwise support, Obama’s political team wants to use the leverage provided by those cra-a-a-zy Tea Partiers to make Democrats live with bigger spending cuts than they normally would support.
Why? Because the more conservative-seeming the final deal, the better for the president’s re-election effort. In that environment, Republicans have every incentive to push and keep pushing. Since any deal they cut will be used as an election-year prop in 2012, they need to make sure the president actually earns his budget-cutting bona fides. "
So does Obama really want to slash the domestic budget? Is there any other evidence of this, I mean, beyond "It must be so since he isn't doing anything to counter it"? Or has anyone else (pundits or otherwise) said this? Who is this a not-so-secret with?
Readers might want to look at the work of Walter Karp, who wrote several books on American history. His basic message was that the Democratic Party keeps sabotaging real change because they don't want real change. His reason: real change would energize the base, and that would mean that more people would participate in Democratic politics, and the Democratic powers-that-be would be overwhelmed by all those....citizens. I don't know if this is too conspirational, but that's his take.
I also don't know if Douhat is trying to get progressives even more pissed-off at Obama than they already are, another possibility, which is why it would be nice to know if there is any other real evidence.