Budget talks: This is getting nasty

Boy, he's bad at that.

 

Most people think the budget was just cut.

It was not explained to them that the cuts only come out of planned growth in the budget. They have no understanding of base line budgeting.

It's not how their budget at home works and it's not how they define cuts.

And, I'm not saying the press should rail against it, but it should be in the discussion. The Times article I linked to was informative.

Where were the articles like it during the debate?

 

I read a study somewheres a long time ago that showed that two-term presidents usually got a lot more done in their second term than their first, because they are then in full FU mode since they don't have to be re-elected.

So one can hope ...

 

1. How do you know?

2. I heard baseline budgeting quite frequently in the last month. Ad nauseum on some media outlets. You obviously knew it, and you seem to like to talk, so I'm sure everybody you know knew about it.

3. How do you know?

4. Sure it's how their home budget works. It's called a credit card. That thing people run up charges on? The difference is, of course, people don't need a 52-inch flatscreen. Aging Americans need Social Security - unless younger generations are suddenly willing to bear that burden again of caring for their parents. Maybe they are.

 

In Washington, absolutely, because both parties are ultimately beholden to the same masters, without which they wouldn't be able to afford to run a viable campaign.

Though I will say that Obama has nothing to lose by throwing a few more bones to his base. As you point out, he's actually fairly centrist, yet the right is always going to portray him as an ultraliberal Chicago politics gangster thug President anyway. Given that, what does Obama have to lose by sticking to his guns a little more?

 

Nixon started the EPA. Was ahead of his time when it came to the earth.

 

Imagine that. Supporting equal protection under the law for everyone. No wonder the teabaggers hate him.

 

Oy.

 

He realized he didn't have to "support" gay marriage. All he had to do is let the judiciary overstep their powers and in one case, a legislature going against the will of the people. That's slick politics.

 

What Obama base? Only 38 percent of Democrats describe themselves to Gallup as liberal or very liberal, while 71 percent of Republicans describe themselves as conservative or very conservative.

http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/08/01/284516/why-democratic-politicians-are-constantly-triangulating/

Overall, only 21 percent of adults describe themselves as liberal or very liberal.

To me, this explains a lot of Obama's negotiating "strategy." Maybe he's too quick to offer a compromise to Republican, but I'm sure his own team has run the numbers and realized that if he draws a liberal line in the sand, there aren't going to be a lot of people there with him. Certainly, not a lot of people who vote -- even if, on the substance of the issue, there might be more who agree than the overall political identification numbers show.

 

The question now is how do we get the economy going in light of tax cuts and reductions in future spending. Are businesses really just waiting for the hope that Obama is defeated in 2012 and end this awful, terrible "uncertainty"? Then they might hire. Maybe.

And what is the GOP presidential campaign slogan going to be? "Don't vote for President Obama, he never gives Republicans anything?"

 

Word salad for lunch? Again?