Legal Commentary

Cutting The Deficit In Half

By Big Tent Democrat

The big news coming down the pike is President Obama's intention to halve the deficit by the end of his first term:

After a string of costly bailout and stimulus measures, President Obama will set a goal this week to cut the annual deficit at least in half by the end of his term, administration officials said. The reduction would come in large part through Iraq troop withdrawals and higher taxes on the wealthy.

This is pretty obvious framing I think. Obama will allow Bush's irresponsible and ineffective tax cuts for the wealthy lapse and, preempting GOP charges of "tax and spend" - Obama seeks to label it deficit reduction. Of course the GOP will NOT go along, but that's not the point. Obama is trying to make opposition to allowing the lapse of the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy be seen as irresponsible. We'll see what the Pete Peterson brigade has to say about it. I expect silence from the "cut entitlements" cabal, whose only concern is when government tries to help the non-wealthy.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 22, 2009 (boomark / email).