On Apr 10, 2013, at 2:36 PM, mjs at smithbowen.net wrote:
>> [WS:] I do not quite understand what O is trying to accomplish.
>
> I do not quite understand why not. He's a neoliberal. What he's
> trying to accomplish is austerity, like all his colleagues.
> Where's the complication?
I keep being surprised by the continual surprised. He's been talking about this sort of thing for years. Just this morning, I watched his brief talk at the opening of the Hamilton Project (a Bowles-Simpson-Rubin-Altman thingy hosted at Brookings) - that from 2006, before he even had to think about compromising with Republicans in Congress. These are his principles. He's not Paul Ryan, but he and Ryan need each other, even if Ryan doesn't know that.