President Obama’s speech is scheduled to begin at 1:35 today.
I will try to live blog this in the comments – any commenter help would be greatly appreciated!
Meanwhile, Greg Sargent compiles a list of educated guesses concerning today’s speech:
* Obama set to draw sharp lines? Marc Ambinder reports that the President will lay down a variety of things he cannot accept, such changing Medicare as we know it, or a budget approach that doesn’t ask the rich to pay more. Moderately encouraging…
* Obama to aggressively defend liberal governance? Howard Fineman reports: “Obama will offer viewers and voters a strong defense of the moral role of government.” Also encouraging…
* Setting the bar for Obama: Jonathan Cohn sets the bar at a good place: If Obama isn’t willing to delve into specifics, at a minimum he must frame the budget as a “test of our priorities” and make a “principled, moral case for shared sacrifice.”
* Obama will claim mantle of bipartisanship — for his own vision: An apt prediction from Steve Benen: “the president will present a very different vision, and make it seem like it’s the Simpson-Bowles plan.”
He also includes a White House official email:
President’s proposal will build off of the deficit reduction measures included in his 2012 budget and will borrow from the recommendations of the bipartisan Fiscal Commission he created. The President will lay out four steps to achieve this balanced approach, including: keeping domestic spending low, finding additional savings in our defense budget, reducing excess health care spending while strengthening Medicare and Medicaid, and tax reform that reduces spending in our tax code. The President will make clear that while we all share the goal of reducing our deficit and putting our nation back on a fiscally responsible path, his vision is one where we can live within our means without putting burdens on the middle class and seniors or impeding our ability to invest in our future.