Today should have been a day Republicans dream of.
What was the headline today?
President Obama's Budget Will Cut Entitlements In Exchange For Tax Increases
There it is, in black and white.
Now, if I were a powerful Republican looking to defeat Democrats, my first response would be:
"No cuts, no how, no way."
But not these Republicans, and not this corporate media. How long have they been in the thrall of the entitlement-cutters? Anyway, what's the response from Republicans?
"Obama is holding entitlement cuts hostage for tax increases"
That's right, folks. Republicans think people hate tax increases more than cuts to their Social Security. So they are going to go on and on about how the President isn't serious about cutting entitlements to "curb spending" and "get the deficit in order". They'll go on all the pundit shows and have the Very Serious People nodding in agreement.
The message will be "cuts good".
Message FAIL.
Now, we all know what Republicans are trying to do. They're trying to set Democrats up for the inevitable "Obama cut Social Security" come election time".
But get this: He doesn't have to run for anything anymore. And HE ISN'T VOTING ON A BUDGET.
First of all, how many of you think this will actually pass? Second, any budget resolution like this must pass both houses. And you know what that means. Carnival Cruz in the Senate, and Boehner's House of Disarray.
Think about it: Anything in the House that doesn't eliminate everything and repeal the ACA and make all abortion illegal won't get the Tea People vote, so Boehner will need the votes of Democrats. If Grijalva can hold his caucus together, that's a powerful bargaining chip. If something passes that's really odious, no Democrat will vote for it--like the Ryan plan.
Now onto the Senate. You can guarantee that Sanders will filibuster anything that has Social Security cuts in it. That means it will require 60 votes to invoke cloture. That means that only 15 Democrats/Independents will be needed.
Which means that Republicans can run ads only targeting those who voted for the cuts. And they can't touch Obama.
And what are Republicans going to do to "save" the entitlement cuts when THEY voted for them too?
As I said, message FAIL.