When Is a Deal, a Deal?

I have a question.   When is a deal, a deal?  Apparently President Obama is a little fuzzy on the understanding of the concept of a "deal".  In the summer of 2011, the President was eager to get the debt ceiling raised so he could continue to fund his expansive and expensive medical care program (Obamacare) and other domestic social programs.  So he agreed with his fellow Democrats in Congress to compromise with the Republicans on spending cuts and allow a thing called sequestration (don't you just love that word) to occur down the road.   Now for those who have been visiting Mars for a while, sequestration is basically automatic, across-the-board spending cuts in the face of a budget deficit.  The reason for sequestration is to try to tame the exploding national debt which is approaching $ 17 trillion and the current targets would deliver $ 1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years.  Not enough to fix the problem, but a good start.

Now, even though Obama agreed to this bold action to get his way a year and a half ago, now he wants to back out.  Suddenly, these cuts are now being labeled as the ultimate evil.  Now, Obama says these cuts would "jeopardize our military readiness and eviscerate job creating investments in education and energy and medical research".  Now, Obama is calling sequestration, which he agreed to 18 months ago, a "meat cleaver approach" to budget cutting.  On Tuesday he upped the evil ante and said that sequestration would result is severe cuts in emergency services.  Hear gunshots in your neighborhood and an intruder busting down your door, don't bother calling 911, the line will be busy.  Suddenly, a deal is no longer a deal.

So how are we going to reduce the deficit if sequestration is not allowed to happen or Congress cannot agree on a more structured approach to spending cuts in the next 10 days or less?  (If you believe that can happen, I have some swamp land in Brooklyn you might be interested in).  Simple, the President says we just must raise taxes, again, on the wealthy.  Today he said, once again, he supports the idea that the wealthy are not doing enough to carry the load.  Forget that he just allowed the Bush tax cuts to expire forcing a huge tax increase on all those making $ 350,000.00 per year or more....they apparently STILL are not doing enough.  It seems our President will not be happy until all wealth is redistributed equally....or however he sees fit.

So tell me this, boys and girls, do you believe is it possible for this Congress and this President to accomplish the campaign promise he made to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years?  I think it is If you believe our President understands when a deal is a deal.  After 40 years in business I can assure you he doesn't have a clue.

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