Obama’s new triangulation strategy

[girl gone mad]

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/01/obamas-new-triangulation-strategy.html">Obama’s new triangulation strategy
By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns

As I indicated in my post Grading Obama’s economic policy after one year, I see the President as a triangulating center-left politician of the Bill Clinton variety. The reason we have seen public policy which has been favorable to big business and reactive to events on the ground during this economic downturn owes much to this. And, as if he heard me and wanted to prove me right, we get this just days later via the New York Times:

President Obama will call for a three-year freeze in spending on many domestic programs, and for increases no greater than inflation after that, an initiative intended to signal his seriousness about cutting the budget deficit, administration officials said Monday.

The officials said the proposal would be a major component both of Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address on Wednesday and of the budget he will send to Congress on Monday for the fiscal year that begins in October.

The freeze would cover the agencies and programs for which Congress allocates specific budgets each year, including air traffic control, farm subsidies, education, nutrition and national parks.

But it would exempt security-related budgets for the Pentagon, foreign aid, the Veterans Administration and homeland security, as well as the entitlement programs that make up the biggest and fastest-growing part of the federal budget: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

I’m not sure who the White House thinks it can fool but the last paragraph makes clear that there is no long-term thinking in this public policy. If you want to go long-term and substantive on deficit reduction, you have to address military spending, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Everyone knows that.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/01/obamas-new-triangulation-strategy.html">more...

[FiveGoodMen]

1. "center-left"?

Hardly.

[amborin]

2. you beat me to it! Center-right is more accurate n/t

[amandabeech]

3. You can only address Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

in a matter that does not wipe out current recipients and those who are too close to retirement to make changes.

As a matter of fact, Social Security is not in nearly the trouble that Medicare and Medicaid are.

Medicare and Medicaid are supposed to be fixed in a general health care reform deal, if one could be had. Personally, I think that we need to figure out where we are spending so much more money than other western nations, and what we can do about it. Obama's proposals seem to focus on increasing co-pays, like the sick can force a doctor to take less for a certain procedure.

Unfortunately, this author comes across as one who is young and whose parents are either very comfortable or young themselves. I don't trust the type to come up with anything that would allow working Americans to live in dignity much past retirement.