President Obama's Speech of Debt Reduction

President Obama did what he set out to do in his usual articulate and measured way. His plan is to cut $4 trillion from the deficit in five years. Even though he veered into policy wonk land, he made it clear that everything including defense was on the table and that ,no, he was not going to allow the privatization of Medicare or the continued cuts to programs that benefited the less well off. And yes, he came out for tax increases on the wealthy because they should share in the sacrifice.

All of this was good and sensible. What disturbed me was that the President of the United States had to speak about the fact that there is a social contract and there is something called the common good. If you listen to the speech, he had to remind people that Americans shared common values. That shows how far off track the political discourse has become in the country.

The Republicans held a press conference as a pre-response to the President's address. We no longer wait to hear what the man says, we have to create spin beforehand to try and frame the discussion our way. The big Republican talking point was that President Obama wants to raise taxes. Finito.

And I am afraid that actually might determine the beltway discussion since everyone in the Beltway media would have their taxes raised.

President Obama did everyone a service by saying that the Ryan Plan wasn't serious and laid into the idea of turning Medicare into a voucher program. He also went on to say that the budget plan proposed by the Republicans would end the America we have all lived in. True. And he said that it would turn us back to a place that may never have existed in our history. True again.

President Obama made a defense of his priorities talking about government programs as investment for America to be able to compete in the world. He basically made the case for government, which needs to be made again and again as it is under attack at both the federal and state levels. He did get a zinger in that we have to protect those who have no voice in Congress.

This is something that is beginning to distrub people more and more. Lobbyists are getting staff jobs in enormous numbers and corporations are asked to write the regulations that govern their own business.

President Obama did not Punch the Hippies as much as usual. He did say that members of his party felt that you couldn't cut the budget when we are still in a recession. He had the mildest repuke for this criticism, saying we must start now to demonstrate some fiscal responsibility so that this would not negatively impact the economy.

Earlier Dana Milbank wrote a humorous column about Donald Trump's quest for President Obama's birth certificate and discovered that President Obama was a certified moderate and that was the scandal.

Earlier in the day, a group of Senators proposed raising the retirement age to 70. John Boehner had been on the phone with wall Street to ask his overloards how long he can drag out the debt ceiling issue so as to extract more concessions from the President. Wall Street blasted back that this needed to be settled now because once the idea of an American default enters the market, it will not leave and then the interest on our debt will become unmanageable like in other European countries. Whether Boehner listens to his bosses, we'll have to see.

Democrats may not like President Obama's speech but the reason is that they are not sufficient in touch to release that the whole social safety net is now seriously threatened by the ideologues on the Right. While the American public may welcome the speech, this will have absolutely no effect on the House GOP. Eric Cantor went babbly on this morning about the mandate of 2010 and of course he will define that as he sees it. Nothing will deter the House Republicans from their search and destroy mission. That is what President Obama was warning about today.

Also this morning it appears that the teabaggers and other ultra-conservatives are backing away from the budget deal because they realize they got owned by President Obama. The actual cuts are more like $17 billion. This means that Boehner must reach across the aisle for votes to pass it.

When was the last time you even cared about the budget of the United States or if one party would declare default on the country's financial obligations? We are now in the lunatic asylum. I'm sticking with the sane guy because he might get us to the exit safely.