President Obama will release a budget next week that proposes significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security and fewer tax hikes than in the past, a conciliatory approach that he hopes will convince Republicans to sign onto a grand bargain that would curb government borrowing and replace deep spending that took effect March 1.
When he unveils the budget on Wednesday, Obama will break with the tradition of providing a sweeping vision of how he would govern if he were untethered from political realities. Instead, the document will incorporate the compromise offer Obama made to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) last December in the discussions over the so-called “fiscal cliff” – which included $1.8 in deficit reduction through spending cuts and tax increases.
“The president has made clear that he is willing to compromise and do tough things to reduce the deficit,” a senior administration official said, “but only in the context of a package like this one that has balance and includes revenues from the wealthiest Americans and that is designed to promote economic growth.”
While Republicans are certain to be skeptical of Obama’s call for more taxes, the president also is likely to face immediate heat over his budget proposal from some Democrats and liberal supporters. Obama proposes, for instance, to change the cost-of-living calculation for Social Security in a way that will reduce benefits for most beneficiaries, a key Republican request that he had earlier embraced only as part of a compromise. Many Democrats say they are opposed to any Social Security cuts and are likely to be furious that such cuts are now being proposed as official administration policy.
“While this is not the president’s ideal deficit reduction plan, and there are particular proposals in this plan like the [cost-of-living] change that were key Republican requests and not the president’s preferred approach,” the senior administration official said, “this is a compromise proposal built on common ground, and the president felt it was important to make it clear that the offer still stands.”
Some people on the left start with the premise that Obama doesn't want to do these things, that he simply is a bad negotiator and cannot help himself by caving to intransigent Republicans.
I don't think that's right.
I start with the premise that Barack Obama is a corporatist neo-liberal happy to cut Social Security and Medicare for working people, take some of that money "saved" by those cuts and make sure rich people continue to suck up most of the wealth of this country through tax breaks, corporate welfare and other advantages.
BTW, some of the money from the Social Security cuts will go to a Race to the Top universal pre-K program for four and five year olds across the country.
That also is part of the corporatist neo-liberal agenda.
They want to socialize the kids very early on to expect very little out of life, to expect nine hour school days, diminished vacation time, the drudgery of the test prep they'll be engaged in for the rest of their school careers as mandated by Obama's Race to the Top program for elementary and secondary school children.
That way the kids won't grow up to be disgruntled adults who realize how badly they've been screwed by a system that, in the words of George Carlin, "threw them overboard forty years ago."
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