Re: Obama: We have a deal
Ok. So you support the cuts that happened, but you oppose the tactice they used to get them?
I did not say that I support the cuts. I said I support significant and real cuts. As it appears to me tonight, these are neither significant nor real.
When you ask about the tactics used, I will answer you this way. The Dems offered three packages to get past this crisis. All three were dead in the Senate. I am adding the Ryan budget as one of the three because it would have had a major impact on these discussions had it passed in the Senate and been signed by the President.
There is a chasm a mile wide between the philosophies of the Dems and the GOP. This issue of debt was raised many times in the past and Clinton and a Republican Congress tackled the issue and brought some fiscal order to the system. Bush, partially due to September 11, ran up deficits fighting wars, but he also proposed programs that had nothing to do with September 11 and ballooned the budget. The 2008 housing bubble burst and it brought about a financial calamity. Bush and Obama along with the Dems in Congress tried to spend us out of this problem and it has failed. It has not gotten us out of the disaster we find ourselves in mired into ever ballooning debt.
Many Dems here have said that we should have just passed the Debt Ceiling as a clear bill. I disagree as did virtually all, if not all, Republicans. Passing a clear bill would have not stopped the spending. Congresses and the Presidents [present and future] need to be more fiscally responsible. That has been the message of the Republicans. The entitlements need reform and so does the tax code. I also believe that the defense budget could be cut and managed much better. Ryan tried to put together a budget that addressed many of these issues. His budget was not perfect, but instead of attempting to perfect it, he was villified, especially by President Obama. It is my belief that the President forced the GOP to stand firm against him and his policies and they did. You may not like it and you may not like the results, but that is how I view the events of this year. Remember, it was President Obama who proposed a budget that was not one of cutting expenditures. In his State of the Union, he virtually ignored the topic. He probably should not lecture people about being adult on topics. I think he has not proven himself in that category.
So, the GOP, not wanting to give a clear debt ceiling bill and remembering the agreements that the Dems had made with the GOP back in the Reagan and Bush Era about raising taxes and cutting spending where the Dems reneged, stuck to their guns and negotiated using hardball tactics. If it had been the Dems who had done that, you would be cheering them on, but instead, for one of the very few times in history, it was the GOP who held sway. What a refreshing difference.
The sad news is that the cuts do not appear to be significant or real. On this, I hope I am proven wrong tomorrow. We'll see.