Blah Blah Blahbetty Freakin' Blah: Obama To Talk On TV Some More at 1 PM

Just a statement.

It isn't hard to predict what he'll say. He'll say I told you so, I was right. He will stress that he warned us about the danger of failing to get a Grand Bargain, and that how failing to do so would result in a downgrade.

Actually, he said nothing of the sort; he was fixated single-minded only a default, not a downgrade, and only pushed for a deal that would take him through 2013. That was his non-negotiable term (which turned out to have wiggle room in it).

Among the things he won't address is why he did not accept Boehner's $800 billion in revenues (in exchange for something like $2.5 trillion in cuts), which would have gotten us near S&P's recommended $4 trillion in cuts. He won't discuss how he blew this offer up by demanding more -- which may have been deliberate; that might have been Harry Reid's call, to make sure there'd be no tax increases (political trouble for Democrats) and also no significant cuts and reforms (both of those are also big trouble for Democrats).

And, of course, he will not present a plan. He can't. He doesn't have one. And he can't present an "Obama plan" because the numbers will give away the fact that his horseshit about corporate jets are trivial, and the "balanced approach" he speaks of vaguely must mean a broad tax increase on what most people consider the middle class.

Prediction: Obama will demand that Congress hurry up and pass the second tranche debt reduction package within a month or two.

Which, in itself, is not an awful idea.

However, he will himself of course be MIA for this mission. Votin' present. And then he'll set up the political narrative that all delays in this procedure are due to Tea Party Terrorists who resist... a balanced approach.

A balanced approach he dare not actually commit to paper.

posted by Ace at 12:55 PM

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