The phrase for today's drinking game is "balanced approach". The media and political mockingbirds are up early and this is obviously todays talking point. A Balanced Approach, for those of you who don't know, combines "revenues and cuts to entitlements" - that's how it's being defined, even by DEMOCRATS like David Axlerod and Melody Barnes on Morning Joe today.
Yes, everyone "cuts to entitlements" is now boldy out there - not the namby pamby "reforms" or "adjustments" but plain old vanilla "cuts". They've danced around the issue long enough and now it's time for Americans to "make the hard choices" and screw over the old, the poor and the ill.
Please notice how in the Medicare discussions you will never hear anyone in a position of actual power and influence advocate for negotiating the costs of drugs in Medicare which would save Americans billions and whose "pain" would be to reduce the profits of an industry raking in billions and billions of dollars. NO, it's much more responsible to push for the "superlative" CPI (known formerly as "chained" CPI) as a nice moderate balanced way to take food out the mouths of the poorest among us.
Who IS out there in positions of power and influence advocating for common sense, decency, proportion, and social justice? Where is the true fiscal responsibilty, in which the pain is primarily allocated for those who have abundant resources to compensate for cuts or increases, which in the grand scheme are negligible to them? Who believes that starving an elederly person and eliminating a tax deduction for corporate jets are commensurate sacrifices?
Who are our champions? Are they in the White House? Are they Democrats? Where are they?