Robert Reich: Beware the “Middle Ground” of the Great Budget Debate

[ProSense]

Beware the “Middle Ground” of the Great Budget Debate

How debates are framed is critical because the “center” or “middle ground” is supposedly halfway between the two extremes.

We continue to hear that the Great Budget Debate has two sides: The President and the Democrats want to cut the budget deficit mainly by increasing taxes on the rich and reducing military spending, but not by privatizing Medicare. On the other side are Paul Ryan, Republicans, and the right, who want cut the deficit by privatizing Medicare and slicing programs that benefit poorer Americans, while lowering taxes on the rich.

By this logic, the center lies just between.

Baloney.

According to the most recent Washington Post-ABC poll, 78 percent of Americans oppose cutting spending on Medicare as a way to reduce the debt, and 72 percent support raising taxes on the rich – including 68 percent of Independents and 54 percent of Republicans.

In other words, the center of America isn’t near halfway between the two sides. It’s overwhelmingly on the side of the President and the Democrats.

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[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Baloney, indeed.

k/r

[polichick]

2. That's what drives me crazy about the way the prez "negotiates"...

You have to start with two extremes - not one extreme and the middle.

It's so obvious that any thinking person has to wonder if the prez means to move to the right.

[ProSense]

3. Where did all the

progressive arguments go to?

What happened to taxing the rich and raising the income cap for Social Security? Seems like there's an effort to spin RW arguments as progressive.