WSJ editorial page hits the low-lights of Obama's deficit speech.
Mr. Obama did not deign to propose an alternative to rival Mr. Ryan's plan, even as he categorically rejected all its reform ideas, repeatedly vilifying them as essentially un-American. "Their vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America," he said, supposedly pitting "children with autism or Down's syndrome" against "every millionaire and billionaire in our society." The President was not attempting to join the debate Mr. Ryan has started, but to close it off just as it begins and banish House GOP ideas to political Siberia.Mr. Obama then packaged his poison in the rhetoric of bipartisanship—which "starts," he said, "by being honest about what's causing our deficit." The speech he chose to deliver was dishonest even by modern political standards.
Both sides are seriously pissing me off. Why don't they start by pulling the 2006 budget out of the filing cabinet, crossing out "2006", writing "2012", and just passing the exact same thing. Somehow we managed to enjoy the Bush-Obama tax cuts and fight two wars in 2006 with a deficit of "only" $500 billion. Yay! That was easy, and we just saved more than $1 trillion per year.
