The Simpson/Bowles freak-out

[ProSense]

THE SIMPSON/BOWLES FREAK-OUT....

President Obama will present his agenda for long-term debt reduction tomorrow, but there's more than a little scuttlebutt today about what his vision will include. In fact, there's been quite a bit of handwringing and finger-pointing, following media reports like this one.

President Obama plans this week to respond to a Republican blueprint for tackling the soaring national debt by promoting a bipartisan approach pioneered by an independent presidential commission rather than introducing his own detailed plan.

Obama will not blaze a fresh path when he delivers a much-anticipated speech Wednesday afternoon at George Washington University. Instead, he is expected to offer support for the commission's work and a related effort underway in the Senate to develop a strategy for curbing borrowing. Obama will frame the approach as a responsible alternative to the 2012 plan unveiled last week by House Republicans, according to people briefed by the White House.

If accurate, this is cause for great concern. The Simpson/Bowles plan wasn't just the wrong solution on deficit reduction, it's also a center-right proposal. It would be a disaster if the White House presented a conservative plan in response to a very conservative plan.

Of course, other reports paint a different, less discouraging picture.

President Obama will call for shrinking the nation's long-term deficits by raising taxes on wealthier Americans and requiring them to pay more into Social Security, drawing a barbed contrast with a Republican plan to save money by deeply slashing Medicare, Medicaid and other domestic spending.

Obama will offer some spending cuts, including trims to the Pentagon's budget, but his speech Wednesday is likely to provide Americans with a vivid choice between higher taxes or fewer benefits, issues that will color the national debate straight through the 2012 election.

<...>

Ezra added this afternoon that his White House sources are saying the president's won't "primarily be an endorsement of Simpson-Bowles," and "this will make more sense tomorrow."

To make a short story long, I'm suggesting we put the apoplexy on hold for 24 hours. Atrios said this morning, "I guess we should just wait until tomorrow."

<...>

[damntexdem]

1. Damn that Bart Simpson, anyway!

Always getting into trouble, and getting the rest of us in trouble with him.

;-)

[AtomicKitten]

2. DU isn't capable of "putting apoplexy on hold for 24 hours." Must.Get.Rage.On.

[FrenchieCat]

3. It is what makes life worthwhile.....

working as hard as possible against the Democratic President,
and then blaming same when those doing the advocating against
this Prez discover a GOP Presidential Foot way up their behind
and into their brain come 2012.

[AtomicKitten]

6. Per FDL, Pres O plans to gut Social Security and will announce it in the 2011 SOTU.

Oh wait. Maybe FDL means the next SOTU. :eyes:

[Cali_Democrat]

4. "President Obama will call for shrinking the nation's long-term deficits by raising taxes...

...on wealthier Americans and requiring them to pay more into Social Security"

Cool.

[frazzled]

5. The Simpson-Bowles meme is all over the place

And yet today's Chicago Tribune reports the president will propose lifting the cap on income to be taxed for Social Security -- something decidedly NOT part of Simpson-Bowles.

[karynnj]

7. That is something that makes so much sense

Very little needs to be done to fix SS for the century - that and having the tax applied to capital based income makes sense.

The top 1% have 40% the country's wealth - they can afford it - and then some.

[no limit]

8. ProSense, I assume if Obama endorsed something similar to Bowles-Simpson...

you would find that completely unacceptable, right?

Also, what cuts to social security and medicare would you accept? I know with medicare you said you would be okay with reducing payments to providers and removing some funding for medicare advantage. Are any other cuts unacceptable to you?

[Jackpine Radical]

9. K&R from me.

As you said, let's wait a bit.

[Keith Bee]

12. Ditto

(Not Head!) ;P

[Blaukraut]

10. I'll wait until tomorrow, and after that, I'll wait until something actually

gets done, and not just discussed as possibilities.

[no limit]

11. Im sure the president and the corporate insterests that pull his strings thank you for your patience

a lot of people played the waiting game during the healthcare debate, those people got thrown under the bus. The exact same thing happened with Bush tax cuts late last year. But yeah, keep waiting.