Obama's latest austerity speech

President Obama today made another pitch for his variety of Herbert Hoover economics.



There was some combative rhetoric in there, which may help the Democrats some politically. But after seeing him for so many months in President Pushover mode, how can we get excited about his promising to not stand for this, or not to allow that?

Particularly knowing his fondness for capitulating to the Republicans, this line from the peroration after 17:20 in the video was just depressing: "I will veto any bill that changes benefits for those who rely on Medicare but does not raise serious revenue by asking [sic] the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share."

It would have been an inspiring line if he had said, "I will veto any bill that changes benefits for those who rely on Medicare." Period. Full stop.

But the plain meaning of what he actually said was that he is willing to cut "benefits for those who rely on Medicare," if the Republicans would just toss him a policy bone that he can call "serious revenue" from the wealthy.

Tags: austerity economics, barack obama, medicare

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