Economy

Historic Ditch-Driving

Ezra Klein on President Obama's pitch for the budget deal:

Obama bragged about “making the largest annual spending cut in our history.” Harry Reid joined him, repeatedly calling the cuts “historic.” It fell to Boehner to give a clipped, businesslike statement on the deal. If you were just tuning in, you might’ve thought Boehner had been arguing for moderation, while both Obama and Reid sought to cut deeper. You would never have known that Democrats had spent months resisting these “historic” cuts, warning that they’d cost jobs and slow the recovery.

Again, these are cuts that were forced into law by the people who famously "drove us into a ditch," as the president likes to say. Now we're honoring and praising their fiscal policy? What about the goddamn ditch? Yeah, well, maybe Robert Reich is correct -- maybe there's another ditch around the corner. And look who's driving now.

Adding... I'd also like to note, however, that the reduction in spending will be a very positive campaign pitch for the president -- similar to our frequent praise of the $122 billion reduction in spending between the last Bush budget and the first Obama budget. But it will only be a positive selling point for the campaign if the economy continues to improve. That's a big "if" and clearly I'm not sure if it will, considering the timing of these cuts.