Sounds promising:Obama to draw sharp contrast with GOP over deficit

[n2doc]

By Peter Nicholas, Christi Parsons and James Oliphant, Washington Bureau
April 12, 2011


Reporting from Washington— President Obama will call for shrinking the nation's long-term deficits by raising taxes on wealthier Americans and requiring them to pay more into Social Security, drawing a barbed contrast with a Republican plan to save money by deeply slashing Medicare, Medicaid and other domestic spending.

Obama will offer some spending cuts, including trims to the Pentagon's budget, but his speech Wednesday is likely to provide Americans with a vivid choice between higher taxes or fewer benefits, issues that will color the national debate straight through the 2012 election.

...

Obama would end tax breaks for households earning more than $250,000 a year, trim Pentagon spending, lift a cap on the amount of income that is assessed for Social Security, and save on Medicare and Medicaid through alterations to healthcare delivery, administration officials said. He will speak about 1:30 p.m. Eastern time on the campus of George Washington University.

Apart from showing voters he is committed to cutting the deficit — a popular position — Obama has another purpose in rolling out his plan this week. Aides said he was thinking ahead to a vote on lifting the nation's debt ceiling and wanted to win over wavering voters by meeting one of their priorities: deficit reduction.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-obama-spending-20110412,0,2958392.story

Hopefully this is correct and he isn't just following Simpson-Bowles...and of course, the proof will be in how hard he fights for these things. He will probably have to force a long shutdown in order to get the repubs to back off enough.

[still_one]

1. I hope your assessment is correct, but I am so cynical right now, I will only rely on actions, and

not words, which many times turn out to be empty promises

[Logical]

2. I agree, we need to hear it before getting too cynical. n-t

[Moondog]

3. The vast majority of Obama's speeches sound promising.

Let's see if what he actually does matches the rhetoric this time.

[Myrina]

6. Ding Ding Ding!!

What he says in public and what happens in the back room when we can't see are two different things.

[mvd]

4. That sounds much more like it

If he had laid this out before, we might have avoided conceding so much ground to the Repukes already. But better late than never as multiple Repukes have said those cuts were only the beginning for them. Since I've been let down before, I'll reserve judgment on actions after the speech.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Yes, the difference between the merits of bashing two kitties instead of twenty.n/t