Villagers on hiatus, have no clue
by digby
Apparently Ron Fournier has no clue what the president has proposed as a replacement for the sequester:
Here are three paths to a deal:
Congress gives the administration flexibility on how to impose the $1.2 trillion in cuts. This would allow the White House to mitigate dangers and inconveniences. To the public, that might seem like a good thing. To Obama, it could be a trap: Accept the GOP’s compromise and lose his leverage, or be seen as the guy holding out for the worst-case scenario.
Republicans agree to a deal that includes new revenue from closing loopholes favoring the rich. This would be a victory for Obama, essentially ceding to his demands. The president could help Republicans save face (a critical element of any compromise) if he agreed to use some new revenue to reduce military cuts. A senior White House official who described this potential path said “it’s not exactly an accident” that Obama traveled to Virginia on Tuesday with Rep. Scott Rigell, a Virginia Republican who bills himself as a problem-solving lawmaker. Rigell’s district relies heavily on military spending.
Modest entitlement cuts could be mixed with loophole closures to produce a “win-win” package. Obama has already put “chained CPI” on the table for long-term debt reductions. He might prefer to wait to adjust the cost-of-living formula for Social Security, but taming the debt was always going to require more sacrifice from Americans than tinkering with one formula. In exchange for entitlement cuts, Republicans could swallow new revenue through closing loopholes on the rich—a concept they reluctantly accepted not too long ago.
To be sure, anything short of an absolute victory will anger liberal and conservative commentators, a prospect that Obama and Boehner hope to avoid. But risk is a part of leadership, and compromise is an ingredient to success.
Right. The win-win package he describes (and I do not agree that it’s “win-win” — for the people anyway) is exactly what the president is proposing. But Fournier either doesn’t know that or can’t bring himself to acknowledge it. The White House should be thrilled, though. He makes it sound as if this is a compromise position instead of the president’s opening bid. Maybe the Republicans are dumb enough to believe that too — but I doubt it.
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