Obama eyes entitlements, taxes

In a major fiscal policy address later Wednesday, Obama, to the profound irritation of his critics on the left, is going along with the Republican notion that there have to be further deep cuts in government spending, even though he’s trying to balance it out with revenue increases. A Republican budget put out last week by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan was so radical in its plan to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid that it made the recommendations from Obama’s debt commission — which seemed to have been consigned to the dustbin of history — look mild by comparison. So the president retrieved some of these ideas for his plan to counter the Republicans. Ryan has in all likelihood permanently damaged his credibility — even conservative economists ridiculed his unfounded assumptions, and a Heritage Foundation study used for his rosy economic projections was withdrawn for some remedial work. The bottom line seems to be that economic and fiscal policy that affects the lives and well being of every citizen in this country is being made by people who don’t really know a lot about economics.What we have instead are politicians who seem intent on scoring points.

Perhaps Ryan's Republicans colleagues simply let him walk the plank. Is it too simple to assume politicians are cynical, and will let anything be said, gauge the public reaction, then adjust their position accordingly?

Obama seems less interested in economics than in doing what it takes to win re-election next year. His compromise on the tax cuts at the end of 2010 took the wind out of Republican sails despite their November victories, and whatever gains the GOP wants to notch up from last week’s game of chicken, most people seem to think they blinked first.

Interesting: Ed Schultz, over at msnbc, speaking with Senator Bernie Sanders, charged that the Tea Party  won the first round. And, do we have to wonder that Obama is any different than other politicians in gauging his reelection his top priority?

So now Obama is taking on the debt ceiling and the budget for the next fiscal year, which starts in October. He is giving in on some more spending cuts and envisages some entitlement reform, earning more opprobrium from the left but less resistance from the right, despite all their loud protests. And in the meantime, the line of those Republicans willing to run against him in 2012 seems to be getting shorter and shorter.

Yeah, but Michelle Bachman is in the wings.