Two interesting, and related, pieces by Robert Reich and Dean Baker today. Both make the hard-to-argue-with case that once again, as in the health reform debate, Obama has ceded the terms of the budget/deficit debate to the Rethugs and their enablers in the "mainstream media." In losing the message battle, the war over the proper role of government in the economy and society is also being lost to the reactionaries and oligarchs that comprise the Rethuglican Party today. As you read these articles, see if you get the same feeling we get that this is a President who has an unerring knack for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.
Reich argues simply that the budget cutting debate is "the wrong debate about the wrong thing at the wrong time." Baker says Obama, unlike teller of tales St. Ronnie of Hollywood, has missed the opportunity to tell the true story of how it's not government social spending, public employee unions and the deficit that are responsible for the economic mess we're in.
