Today, POLITICO carried a report entitled, "Obama: 'Do what's right for country,' highlighting comments from his weekly address to the Nation.* In his comments about the debt ceiling debate he stated:
"We need an approach that goes after waste in the budget and gets rid of pet projects that cost billions of dollars,” he said. “We need an approach that makes some serious cuts to worthy programs – cuts I wouldn’t make under normal circumstances. And we need an approach that asks everybody to do their part.”
Now let's enter the POLITIZONE and see what is really going on.
What on earth does Obama mean? What are the "normal circumstances" he is referring to? What am I being asked to do? After all, he says everybody should do their part. This is a great example of the same tired rhetoric we get from our political leaders. Rhetoric intended to pacify us and make us think our career politicians are really working on our behalf. But what is really going on?
Let's not forget that Obama has an election to win in 2012. Saying things like "cuts I wouldn't make under normal circumstances" is all about political cover. He wants us to know that he wouldn't change a thing except for the current crisis engulfing the Nation over the debt ceiling limit. Next year he will campaign on the fact that he made the "tough choices" to steer the country out of the crisis. Being the consummate politician he knows he must build expectations now to support his re-election bid next year.
That being said, rest assured that the same calculus is going on with the Republican leadership. Boehner wants to remain Speaker of the House in 2012. He must figure out how to maximize political gain for his party to ensure they remain the majority party in the House to retain their hold on power.
Politicians love a crisis. What we must understand is that the debt ceiling crisis has been foisted upon us by the very political leaders that are attempting to exploit it for their personal benefit.
* Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59702.html#ixzz1Sxke7mSj
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