The Age of Obama has entered the Season of the Business-Dominated Committee, where the president maneuvered to trap us, in the first place. The Great Dissembler is urging the congressional deficit reduction “Super-Committee” to go beyond the $1.5 trillion budget cuts over ten years mandated during this summer’s debt ceiling fiasco. His allies and surrogates demand that the panel “go big” with reductions closer to the $4 billion called for by the committee’s accursed predecessor, the hand-picked budget deficit outfit imposed on the deliberative process by Obama during his second year to give “bi-partisan” sanction to the administration’s methodical subversion of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Back then, the Republicans were avoiding a frontal assault on Social Security, remembering George Bush’s first-term butt-whippin’ on the issue. It was up to Barack Obama to keep Social Security on the chopping block.
This time around, White House spokesman Jay Carney is encouraging the Super-Committee, made up of six House members and six Senators, to “overachieve” their mandate. The president says he favors at least $2 trillion in cuts by the late November deadline. Committee member Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), in synch with the White House, chants the “go big” mantra, while Republicans hang back, declining to call for larger cuts in fear that war spending might come under scrutiny. No problem; the top Democrat will carry the ball, for them.
The GOP can count on Obama to offer up Social Security on the alter of austerity, as he has done consistently since January, 2009, while still president-elect. Back in April, he proposed $4 trillion in cuts over 12 years – nearly as draconian as his hand-picked committee – with the focus on the safety net. “By 2025,” warned the apocalyptic and grossly misleading president, “the amount of taxes we currently pay will only be enough to finance our health care programs, Social Security, and the interest we owe on our debt.”
Obama promises that his grab-bag, mostly supply-side and wholly inadequate jobs scheme will largely be “paid for” by cuts that include “modest adjustments [hah!] to health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid.”
