During ABC’s wrap-up of Tuesday’s State of the Union address coverage, Washington Post columnist and “This Week” regular George Will said President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address killed any hope of significant spending cuts and entitlement reform.
“First, he said nothing in all the list of things I’m proposing will add a single dime to the deficit,” Will said. “That means he is assuming that there are going to be substantial revenue increases, because he does propose a lot of new spending — and that is simply dubious, to put it mildly.”
“Then … with regard to entitlements that are driving our fiscal problem, [Obama] said, ‘We shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep, but we must keep the promises we have already made,’” Will continued. “That is the end of any illusion the Republicans could have had about a grand bargain reforming entitlement programs as they now exist. … It is clear the president says there’s not going to be any spending cuts.”