Instruments of Peace

Assured
On Wednesday, Mr. Obama will meet with corporate executives at the White House as he uses the nation’s fiscal problems to start rebuilding relations with business leaders. Though many of them backed Mitt Romney, scores have formed a coalition to push for a budget compromise similar to the one the president seeks. He hopes to enlist them to persuade Republicans in Congress to accept higher taxes on the assurance that he can deliver Democrats’ votes for future reductions in fast-growing entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid. (NYT, 11/11/2012)

Republicans be warned. The Democrat playbook here (see GHWB) is to publicly wrest concessions from Republicans while privately promising spending cuts.....which never materialize.


Story Time
That story line, stoked by Republicans but shared by some Democrats, holds that Mr. Obama is too passive and deferential to Congress, a legislative naif who does little to nurture personal relationships with potential allies — in short, not a particularly strong leader. (NYT, 11/11/2012)

Too passive? Deferential? A legislative naif? What is going on here?

Answer: With Obama safely re-elected the New York Times can  - ever so slightly -  begin reporting news objectively.


Qualified
Mitt Romney’s careless comment about “the 47 percent” receiving government benefits — implying they’re all deadbeats — squelched any serious discussion in the campaign. Interestingly, his figure is probably low: More than 50 percent of Americans may already receive benefits. Obamacare will raise this, because families with incomes up to four times the federal poverty line ($91,000 in 2011 for a family of four) qualify for insurance subsidies. (Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, 11/11/2012)

Good piece on entitlement programs. What we don't understand is this: Liberals want ever-increasing and ever more ridiculous benefits (e.g. Sandra Fluke's $10/month birth control) and yet they have to know that there is a breaking point. Where will the money come from? We can tax the rich into submission and gut the military, but even that will not be enough if they want government-run health care, government-funded college tuition, etc. The numbers just do not work. 


Stage Left
Why isn’t soul searching underway on the left? When the personality at the center of the cult leaves the stage in four years, Democrats will own his results without the benefit of his appeal. We can’t know quite what a second Obama term will bring, but if his first term is an indication, there’s little reason to expect his party will be crowing. (Abe Greenwald, Commentarymagazine.com, 11/11/2012)

We look for comfort where we can find it.