- Obama will lay out a $3 trillion deficit reduction plan, including $580 billion in spending cuts–$320 billion of which would come from federal health care entitlements–$1.5 trillion in new revenue from ending exemptions in the tax code, letting the Bush tax cuts on the highest income levels expire, and setting a new minimum rate on income above $1 million per year (dubbed “The Buffett Rule.”) He’s also counting some $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Like the American Jobs Act, it’s essentially a re-election platform.
- Congressional Republicans cry “class warfare.”
- They’ll back parts of the President’s stimulus proposal, namely the payroll tax cut extension, business write-offs and training for the unemployed.
- Independents, economic angst still dragging Obama’s approval down.
- He’s not losing Jewish support per se, he’s just losing support.
- John Heilemann argues Obama’s been good for Israel.
- What the Palestinian delegation is thinking as it approaches the U.N. statehood vote.
- The Fed faces high expectations for action.
- Perry will grapple with TARP letter.
- Romney and Perry race for governors.
- Tom Junod profiles Jon Stewart.
- And Paul Krugman finds someone to play him in the movie.
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The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy
More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney are terribly interested in dwelling on policy platforms. Romney’s plan to slash spending and keep taxes low on the wealthy isn’t especially popular, at least not at any level of detail beyond a blithe promise to shrink the deficit. Meanwhile, Obama’s signature first-term achievements, like health care, the stimulus and Wall Street reform, are all unpopular or tricky to sell. (The Dodd-Frank bill is the most popular of these, but hyping it means offending wealthy donors.) So what we’re getting instead is a superficial duel about character–and, worse, one that’s based on the largely false premise that the better man can better “manage” the economy back to health.
