President Obama will unveil his $3 trillion deficit reduction plan at 10:30 am this morning. This time, finally, the President is not conceding the fight right away by crafting a plan designed to win GOP votes. Rather, he is pushes for multiple tax increases on the rich, and will be issuing a veto threat against anything that cuts Medicare benefits while not raising taxes.
The White House’s strategy here isn’t to appear so reasonable that Republicans can’t help but cut a deal. They feel they tried that during the debt-ceiling debate, and it failed. The White House’s strategy here is to produce a popular plan that strikes directly at Republican vulnerabilities on taxes and Medicare. If that scares the GOP and makes them more interested in coming to an agreement in the supercommittee process, then great. If not, it gives the White House a message to base its reelection campaign off of.
Hell, they have tried it during the entire Obama presidency and it failed. Healthcare, Stimulus, you name it. It is long past time to switch to the better strategic option. And that better strategic option is to both call the Republican bluff on deficit reduction by calling for a larger reduction but by doing it your way; through new revenues via tax increases on the rich and by ending the wars. If all the Republicans can do is call it class warfare, then embrace that, and say Fuck yeah, it is a class war. The middle class and the poor versus the rich. Guess who has more votes, Mr. President?