In a speech to be delivered at a university here on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will in effect come off the sidelines on the debate over reducing the nation’s debt, which is reaching dangerous heights as the population ages.
After months of criticism that he has not led on budget talks, Mr. Obama will urge bipartisan negotiations toward a multiyear debt-reduction plan tha
t administration officials said would depart sharply from the one proposed last week by House Republicans.
The Republican plan includes a shrinking of Medicare and Medicaid and trillions of dollars in tax cuts, while sparing defense spending. Mr. Obama, by contrast, envisions a more comprehensive plan that would include tax increases for the richest taxpayers, cuts to military spending, savings in Medicare and Medicaid, and unspecified changes to Social Security.
Tax increases and a weakened military? Just what every American has been clamoring for! And "savings" in Medicare & Medicaid? No doubt similar to the health care "savings" he projected in Obamacare, which creates a mere trillion-dollar hole all by itself within the deficit. And that's just over the first ten years, where we get taxed for a decade but get services for only six years. And after that? We get "saved" into bankruptcy....
And you'd better bet those changes to Social Security will remain unspecified, or it will be a promise of simply more benefits - in the future, of course - to be paid for by...tax increases today.
You know what '80's phrase describes Obama perfectly? "Posuer." If I may:
Poseur is a pejorative term, often used in the punk, heavy metal, hip hop and goth subcultures to describe a person who adopts the dress, speech, and/or mannerisms of a group or subculture, generally for attaining acceptability within the group or for popularity among various other groups, yet who is deemed to not share or understand the values or philosophy of the subculture.
Except tax-cutting and deficit reduction are no longer part of the conservative "subculture", it has gone seriously mainstream. Perhaps this definition of "Poseur" fits better:
The common thread is insecurity- the insecurity to be yourself and be happy with it. Poseurs are the kinds of people who only appear "cool" to people who are just as insecure as they are. But no one ever found success lying to themselves for acceptance.
Yeah, that's the ticket...