Gibbs tweets: President to talk about priorities and focus on deficit/debt in SOTU

[ProSense]

Twitter






h/t Greg Sargent

[msongs]

1. hooray he is gonna slash welfare military corporate war profiteer scams nt

[ClarkUSA]

7. President Obama already has, more so than any president in recent memory. See Reply #5.

The facts bely your derision, as usual.

[CreekDog]

2. (looks around at everyone here and wonders which one of us will be offered up for the Republicans)

is it you, food stamp recipient?

you Social Security recipient?

who is going to join in and be part of the opening offer?

on the other hand, maybe he will just suggest take hikes for the wealthy and leave poor grandma alone and not force little Billy (who can't afford college anymore) to work loading boxes until he's 71.

:sigh: (we really need a :sigh: smilie)

[rfranklin]

3. I say a bold move!

Social Security.

[Autumn]

24. Well we pretty much know what is off the table,

so Billy and Grandma better watch out.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. I wonder how Obama can seriously focus on reducing the deficit when....

- The defense budget is off the table
- The wars will continue
- The Bush tax cuts will remain


"team looking through deficit comm recs 2"

Hmmmmmm......

[ProSense]

5. "The defense budget is off the table" Who said

the defense budget is off the table?

Sources: DoD ordered to cut $78B over 5 years

[ClarkUSA]

6. People who don't know what they are talking about, that's who...

msongs in Reply #1 also needs to learn the facts you offer although his constant negativity re: Obama knows no bounds, either.

[Cali_Democrat]

9. How is 15.6 billion a year going to even make a dent in the national debt/deficit?

The 2011 defense bill passed by the house was well over 700 billion. The total US debt currently stands at 14 trillion and will be well over 18 trillion in 5 years, especially if the war in Afghanistan continues.

15.6 billion a year is chump change.

Do the math.

[ProSense]

12. Here's some math:

$90 billion pays for one and a half years of the tax cuts for the rich.

There is always something more that can be done, but everything that's done counts.

[Cali_Democrat]

18. No...it's 78 billion over 5 years

Learn to read.

[ProSense]

22. Learn to read. "

"some $10 billion below the Pentagon’s request."

Ditto. The 2011 budget was cut by more than $10 billion.

[hulka38]

33. Military budget for 5 years would be about $3.5 trillion.

If you include the off budget, it's probably more like $6 trillion. Put these cuts on Obama's greatest accomplishments list.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[ProSense]

11. It's $90 billion and

no it's not a joke. Also, where does it say that is all? It's a start.

[Cali_Democrat]

14. 0.02% reduction in the defense budget over 5 years....Hooray!!!

:party:

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[ProSense]

17. It's a start.

Period.

[Milo_Bloom]

20. No... it's not.

Token gestures aren't "starts".. they are just what they are, "token gestures".

They are only a start when they are advertised as such. They have made NO OVERTURES to cut defense in any meaningful way, but suddenly there all types of trial balloons floating around about cuts to Social Security.


The pattern has been the same for the last 2 years.

First we hear rumors about terrible thing X that everyone says to ignore, because it is just a rumor.

Second, White House official Y makes a general denial of X without every saying that X is untrue.

Third, we see more reports of X. White House signals it is willing to accept X, if it has no other choice.

Fourth... X

Finally, some people try to convince others that either X was the best we could hope for... or X is actually a GOOD THING. YAY FOR X!!!

[cherokeeprogressive]

26. Six Hundred Sixty Billion per year x five years - Seventy Eight Billion

What, is the military going to stop buying toilet paper or something?

[Milo_Bloom]

8. Drip... Drip... Drip.

[ProSense]

13. Sounds like

the deficit being reduced. That's the big thing now, not adding to the deficit and running up the debt.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[Milo_Bloom]

27. Actually, it sounds like the debt is growing.

These token cuts are eaten up by the tax cuts for the rich.

The token cuts take place over 5 years, but the tax cuts for the rich take place over 2 years.

That leaves 3 years of unaccounted for interest.

[paulk]

29. why is that the "big thing"?

I mean, I can understand that being a priority if you're a conservative, since that's the line they've been pushing, but I've not seen any liberal economists pushing this idea.

This is just more of Obama validating the right wing angle on what's wrong with our economy.

[ProSense]

30. You haven't heard anyone

say the tax cuts for the rich represents a danger to the debt and future generations?

[paulk]

31. is that what Obama is going to talk about?

let's hope so, but I'm thinking it will be a classic triangulation ploy -

co-opting the conservative debt/deficit campaign ...

I don't have as much faith in this guy as you

[paulk]

32. to add -

I don't remember seeing anything in the deficit commission's report having to do with the "tax cuts for the rich", and that is what Gibbs specifically references...

[egoclothes]

34. the drip is SS going away along with Medicare.

[Laelth]

19. Tht is NOT what I would like to see Obama talk about. n/t

-Laelth

[ProSense]

23. Maybe he'll talk about how

the tax cuts for the rich represents a danger to the debt and future generations.

Gibbs also mentioned that he plans to talk about priorities. So we'll see.

[Laelth]

25. We'll see. n/t

-Laelth

[displacedvermoter]

28. Whose priorities?

[Canuckistanian]

21. Like how SS has NOTHING to do with the deficit?

I'd LOVE to see that little factoid mentioned in the SOTU.