The president spent this week's address touting pay go. Pay go is a good idea in theory. If it's strictly enforced and applied to all, or at least most of the budget, it makes sense. In pay go, any new spending is countered with a cut somewhere else. Of course, the current pay go only applies to about 60% of the budget.
Of course, the president's sudden push toward fiscal responsibility is not the least bit absurd. The president claims that D.C. spends too much as though he hasn't been leading that spending binge. He also took yet another shot at Bush by proclaiming that we had a budget surplus at the beginning of the decade and that he inherited a budget deficit of $1.4 trillion. We did have a budget surplus but we also didn't have a GWOT. His budget deficit numbers are dubious at best.
Lindsey Graham used the Reps' weekly address to go after the president's GWOT policies. He hit on familiar themes: KSM in New York, closing GITMO, and reading the Christmas Day bomber his rights.
It's hard to imagine that the public would loathe anything more than they loathe Obamacare, but if these talking points continue as effectively that may just happen. The president's Afghanistan policy is generally well liked, and his use of drones is effective. Of course, those get little coverage.
Instead, all the coverage is of the debacle on Farouk and the total nightmare that is the KSM trial. Graham effectively verbalized talking points that will become very familiar over the next few months. Of course, this was a target rich environment for him.
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