Reply #45: “The substance of this deal is bad...But the way Democrats are selling it makes it worse"

[bread_and_roses]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/10-2

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein cut through the bull to look for the bone,

“The substance of this deal is bad,” he writes, “But the way Democrats are selling it makes it much, much worse.

The final compromise was $38.5 billion below 2010’s funding levels. That’s $78.5 billion below President Obama’s original budget proposal, which would’ve added $40 billion to 2010’s funding levels, and $6.5 billion below John Boehner’s original counteroffer, which would’ve subtracted $32 billion from 2010’s budget totals…. Obama bragged about “making the largest annual spending cut in our history.” Harry Reid joined him, repeatedly calling the cuts “historic.” … You would never have known that Democrats had spent months resisting these “historic” cuts, warning that they’d cost jobs and slow the recovery…. The Democrats believe it’s good to look like a winner, even if you’ve lost. But they’re sacrificing more than they let on.”

Take a breath because this budget fight is only a minor blip in a deeper and protracted war that is just cranking up. As Business Insider notes, “The fight over whether to shut down the government for a few days is chicken-scratch. It's low-stakes poker compared to the fight over the debt ceiling, which must be resolved by May 8, in just over a month….

Now, there are fools, and there are fools - and there are fools fools. Which may be the only way to describe the Ds. Why, for the love of the goddess are they not out there telling the citizenry exactly what and who these cuts hurt, and exactly who to blame for them? Why oh why is Obama bragging about his "historic" cuts??? Why is he not excoriating the despicable Rs for trying to balance the budget on the backs of preschoolers and seniors? Why???????????????????????????????????????

Well, there's only one explanation for it, so I don't know why I'm asking. We are so screwn. As hateful as the ensuing suffering would be, I'm at the point of saying bring it down. Maybe then people will start to remember what gov't is for, and why we have a safety net, regulations, etc etc etc. People are suffering now and more will suffer soon.

It's as if they are trying to precisely calculate the exact number who can suffer without the rest understanding that "there but for the grace..." Trying to throw just the exact # of scraps that will keep a majority hoping that one of those scraped plates will end up on their table, and so closing their eyes to those poor souls out there scrabbling through the midden for a bone.