This morning I posted over at Greg Sargent's about the reports that Obama would be embracing the proposal developed by deficit commission co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles. Greg points out that during the press briefing Jay Carney said this wasn't the case. Steve Benen lays out what I think is the most optimistic scenario:
But here's the thing: I rather doubt the Simpson/Bowles plan will be Obama's plan. It seems far more likely to me that the president will present a very different vision, and make it seem as if it's the Simpson/Bowles plan.
Rep. Paul Ryan actually did something similar when he tried to pass off his Medicare privatization scheme as the proposal he developed with former Clinton OMB Director Alice Rivlin. She rebuked him later. It seems to me that if Obama does proposes a more progressive vision that includes some of the deficit commissions' recommendations, the politics of doing so will depend at least in part on how Bowles and Simpson react.
