Today's "Against the Grain" column, by Josh Kraushaar, reads like a parody of Beltway conventional wisdom. For example, there's this:
President Obama has chosen to play the political equivalent of the prevent defense as his reelection campaign approaches by deferring tough decisions on entitlements.
His budget made no attempt to change the Medicare and Social Security programs, and barely made a dent in spending cuts.
His agreement to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in last year's lame-duck session has been followed by an embrace of the protesters in Wisconsin, both of which are off key in an economic situation that demands sacrifice from all.
And this:
Obama can't win reelection in the Rust Belt by just winning over his labor allies and liberal activists. He needs to win back the independents that deserted his party in the last midterms.
There is a lot going on here, all of it wrong. Social Security has little to do with long-term debts, and Medicare is most affected by the overall growth in health-care spending. Yes, Obama's budget doesn't directly deal with Medicare spending, but the Affordable Care Act slows spending by $143 billion over the next the decade. Overall, Obama's budget reduces the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the same period, and stabilizes the debt at its current levels. I guess that's "barely a dent" -- if you don't actually know much about the federal budget -- but for the rest of us, it's pretty decent.
As for independent voters? Winning their support has a lot more to do with economic conditions then whether or not Obama is willing to cheer union-busting. If 2012 sees higher growth and lower unemployment, then independents will happily cast their ballots for Obama. That said, most Americans -- to the tune of 61 percent -- are less than enthused with Scott Walker's attempt to break Wisconsin's unions. If there's anyone out of touch with the public, it's not Obama.
Finally, Kraushaar is completely off-base about Wisconsin; the labor fight had nothing to do with debt, and everything to do with power. Scott Walker wants to break the unions and is using the state's deficit as cover. And, to borrow from yesterday's post, how exactly will Josh Kraushaar suffer from budget cuts? For my part, it seems easy to call for "pain" and "austerity" when you have a nice perch at National Journal, and little to lose from pay cuts for teachers and social workers.
