GOP, Boehner Play 'Let's Fake A Counter-Offer'

Krugman is less than kind in his assessment of the GOP's "counter-offer" to Obama's proposal, and for good reason:

It goes without saying that the Republican “counteroffer” is basically fake. It calls for $800 billion in revenue from closing loopholes, but doesn’t specify a single loophole to be closed; it calls for huge spending cuts, but aside from raising the Medicare age and cutting the Social Security inflation adjustment — moves worth only around $300 billion — it doesn’t specify how these cuts are to be achieved. So it’s basically the Paul Ryan method: scribble down some numbers and pretend that you’re a budget wonk with a Serious plan.

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Did you expect anything different from the GOP? But wait; there's more: look at his Figure 1, "Economic Downturn and Legacy of Bush Policies Drive Record Deficit" ... have you ever seen an uglier curve? Without two Bush wars, the Bush tax cuts (overwhelmingly and irresponsibly large and directed toward the well-off), and... last and pretty much least... the economic downturn, our deficit would have been tiny and recovery largely assured, if a bit slow. It's undeniably the Bush deficit, and if you ask me, the bastard did it intentionally, with political malice aforethought. But that's a Republican for you: anything for political advantage; nothing for the good of the nation.

Krugman again:

And the GOP says that because of that deficit we must raise the Medicare age and cut Social Security!

I don't know about that. How much would the GOP House "leadership" enjoy the sight of millions of angry seniors, supporters of BOTH major political parties, heading up their driveways and over their lawns to their front doors, metaphorical pitchforks and torches in hand, to prevent exactly those cuts? Right. I didn't think so!

Remember Sequestration? Republicans Don't

Remember how Congress, on a bipartisan basis, agreed to automatic sharp cuts in programs of value to both parties, both defense and non-defense programs, for a period of 10 years, as compensation for failure to negotiate targeted cuts?

Well "surprise, surprise": Republicans lied. Paul Ryan announced it today. Here's Brian Beutler of TPM:

If Mitt Romney wins in November, he and a Republican Congress will fast track legislation early next year to replace across the board defense cuts with cuts to food stamps and other programs for needy Americans.

“In January our intention is that if we don’t fix it in the lame duck is to fix it retroactively once a new session of Congress takes place,” Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate, told a crowd in North Carolina Thursday, “We have procedural way in the Senate to advance that legislation very quickly and get it to the next President of the United States who I believe is going to be Mitt Romney, to pass that into law and retroactively prevent that sequester from taking place in January.”

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And fuzzy-minded Democrats, including Obama, agreed to this fool's bargain. Even the Democratic Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta rejected defense cuts altogether. It should have been obvious that no such thing would ever actually come to pass.

Do you suppose Obama will ever get tired of the "pull my finger" game played on him by Republicans? I know I am, and the smell in here is getting pretty strong...