If a goal post moves in the forest … : Boehner claims the White House “moved the goal posts and insisted on $400 billion in higher taxes.” Obama disagrees. Here is a paragraph from Mike Allen’s Politico Playbook:
At the Roosevelt Room briefing, a White House official cast it differently: “In tax reform, we were apart by $400 billion. We’d agreed to set a level of a target for tax reform that would be $800 billion above the level that it would be if the Bush tax cuts were extended. We said on top of that, we thought it was appropriate — given the scale of savings in so many important entitlement and discretionary areas — that balance required that there be a little more, and we said $400 billion more was something that we thought was appropriate.” [E.A.]
I see! Now it sounds more like … moving the goal posts, no? Sort of like saying “I didn’t break up with my girlfriend. I just said that, given the sacrifices involved in monogamy, I thought it was appropriate that I date other people.” It’s all in the presentation. …
P.S.–Where is the “balance”? TNR‘s Jon Chait has now abandoned the Dem party line and argues Obama would be wise to “Give Up On Revenue and Sign an All-Cuts Deal”:
An all-cuts deal sounds bad, but it contains some real advantages. It clearly positions Obama in the center, and assuages centrist fears that he’s a big government liberal (fears I don’t share, but the political power of which I concede.) It makes a large step toward medium-term fiscal correction without taking the choices off the table. Having taken a large step, voters in 2012 will decide the next one — higher taxes on the rich, or deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid? That’s a good set-up for Obama
I agree. Kf in June means Chait in July! …
P.P.S.: See the middle of Chait’s piece for an intriguing analysis of how President Obama had to offer to cut middle-class entitlements in order to … be able to stick it to middle-class taxpayers! It was win-win! (The truth is that Obama’s 2008 campaign pledge not to tax people making under $250,000 was irresponsible, especially if he was planning to “stuff the beast” by passing an expensive new health care entitlement. Is that why he’s so angry? You’re always maddest when you feel a little guilty, no?) …