Obama the Right Wing Extremist

by evanmcmurry

For more on the idea that Republicans are “post-policy“—i.e., not for any particular policy, but simply against whatever Obama proposes—see Chait‘s round up of the most absurd examples, including Charles Krauthammer suggesting that Obama propose a 50/50 revenue/tax cut plan, a considerably more liberal version of the plans that have gotten Obama called a Socialist, and a Free Beacon writer who once derided Obama for pushing his jobs act and now is deriding Obama for not pushing a jobs act.

Nobody’s happy about Obama’s proposal to throw seniors under the bus in favor of some grand bargain (whatever that is)—and once the issue’s on the table, it’s going to be difficult to remove it—but we’re again seeing Obama the tactician in full force. The GOP was more than happy to demand entitlement cuts when they were the austere hypothetical response to more government spending; now that Obama has called their bluff and made the unpopular cuts a reality for which the GOP will have to vote and then campaign on, he’s finding they’re not so committed to slashing the deficit after all. If, after years of Republicans refusing 10:1 tax cut/revenue plans to prove their conservative bona fides, Obama gets more revenue by tacking to the GOP’s right, everybody gets a half day—and they better use it to call their grandparents.