Just eight days before the default deadline, the president has finally endorsed a plan to raise the debt limit, signing on to “debt-ceiling proposal by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that would cut federal deficits by $2.7 trillion and increase the federal borrowing limit through 2012.”
House Speaker John Boehner, however, finds that the plan is “full of gimmicks” and “fails to change” the federal “spending structure” nor does it “deal with entitlements.” Now that both sides have plans, will the president blame Republicans for intransigence if they fail to support it? House Republicans have already compromised, with leading members of the GOP caucus denouncing his latest plan.
It seems that for this president compromise means agreeing with him.
Will the president tonight lash out at Republicans for failing to walk in lock-step with him (and call that failure “intransigence”) or will he commend them for putting forward several plans to raise the debt limit while cutting spending? His recent history of public statements on the debt crisis suggests the former. As Peter Wehner wrote about the Democrat’s most recent such statement:
It’s been clear to some of us for a while that Barack Obama is a man of uncommon self-admiration, quite thin-skinned, and increasingly consumed by his grievances. Obama has masked these traits pretty well so far, but on Friday his mask slipped more than it ever has.
Via Instapundit.
Will the president focus on the good will efforts of individuals on both sides of the political aisle to solve the debt crisis or will he make it appear that he is the only adult in the room (and thus show he is anything but)?
