Rob Port - Weeks ago President Obama issued an executive budget for FY2012. Months ago, a commission convened by the President to address the nation’s national debt and deficit issues put forth a report which the Obama administration largely ignored.
But tomorrow the White House is telling us that the President will deliver a speech that will lay out his plans for the national debt. “Last week’s release of Republican Rep. Paul Ryan’s [budget plan] and a looming vote to raise the debt limit has forced the White House to unveil its own plan in a speech planned for George Washington University Wednesday afternoon.” reports Politico.
What don’t we already know? Shouldn’t his budget, again released weeks ago, tell us what the President wants to do about national debt and deficits? Which is, essentially, nothing?
The Washington Post is reporting that Obama is now turning to his deficit commission’s report on the deficit for guidance. That blueprint addressed entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, and yet when the President addressed the nation in his most recent state of the union address the New York Times reported the President “did not lay out any specific plans for addressing the long-term costs of Social Security and Medicare, the biggest fiscal challenges ahead.”
“[H]e did not adopt any of the recommendations of the bipartisan fiscal commission he appointed to figure out ways to bring the deficit under control.”
So now, suddenly, the President wants to embrace spending cuts.
Hypocritical, to be sure, but that may be the real victory of the budget compromise Republicans agreed to last week. The cuts were tiny, and some conservatives are upset that Republicans didn’t shut down the government over bigger cuts, but what they did do was keep the national political momentum toward spending cuts.
Even the President is changing his tone.
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