Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Monday, December 20, 2010

Grinding Up the Rumor Mill

Where to now?

There was a piece written in Politico by some guy.  He says that Obama is considering talking about spending cuts and will include much of the Simpson/Bowles stuff.  It will be part of his State of the Union and an attempt to keep the GOP from taking a harsher line and framing the debate.  At least, that's how I read the anonymous quotes and poorly sourced info in the piece.  The author (Rutton?  Sutton?  Mutton?) says that what this must mean is that Obama will cut Social Security benefits.

I read the article (actually an opinion piece) and was trying to see where the White House source was saying "We're going to cut Social Security."  And I couldn't really find it.  They are talking about deficit reduction, but Social Security does not ADD to the deficit.  Hell, it FUNDS the deficit.

But there was a post up on Daily Troll before the pixels had dried and it was closing on 1500 comments when I checked it last.  Basically, the question was whether to primary him or stage a revolution.  If so, it will be the flabbiest, whitest revolution since the little known Couch Potato Putsch of 1973 in Milwaukee.

I am guessing that Obama will not embrace anything more than some means testing in terms of benefits cuts.  I feel pretty confident of that, given what he has said about Social Security and how he tends to hew fairly closely to what he says he believes.

But the Left has become so paranoid about Obama that they literally see nothing but betrayal.

Obama is going to talk about spending cuts?  Well, that MUST mean Social Security cuts!  What else could it possibly mean?

 I never made a habit of going to Red State or Little Green Footballs back in the Bush years, because I was not interested in the lunatic ravings of the Rightist fringe.

I wonder when the day comes when I will no longer even stop by Kos to see what's going on?

How does Thursday work for you?

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