Leading us on?

Well, the President gave his much dreaded (Liberal side) budget speech today--good news, it's not the disaster that had been feared.  It's a pretty good Liberal outlook on the budget--ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, protecting the poor, elderly, and the middle class, fixing Medicare by improving services and health care, not by putting it on the backs of those who can least afford it.  Digby basically liked it, then later a little less so.  Paul Ryan hated it--which may be a pretty good endorsement (and a good chuckle from Jed Lewison for calling Ryan an FLCB--fucking little cry-baby).

Concerns:  1)  Hard to believe anyone is serious about cutting budget deficits if there isn't a serious discussion about cutting defense spending in a serious fashion.  2)  I'm afraid it didn't start far enough to the left, vis-a-vis Paul Ryan's plan, which is so far to the right that Ayn Rand is dancing in hell (excellent rebuttal from Krugman on Ryan's plan here).  Obama's plan can only go to the right from here--it might have behooved him to start from the People's Budget.  This could, though, be shrewd politics on Obama's part--independents are not enamored already of republican leadership since last January, and Obama's handlers may have felt he'd apppeal to them more by staying center-left rather than far left. 3)  I'm not convinced the economy is strong enough to begin cutting federal spending--Great Britain was not hammered quite as hard as the U.S. in the global downturn and their stab at austerity has been less than successful.  Further, with unemployment still hovering near 9% I'm not sure the country can handle the job losses that will come with cutting spending.  4)  (And this may be my biggest concern) Is Obama leading us on knowing that he's going to need us for his re-election in 2012, only to turn his back on us after wrapping up another four years in the White House?  Hope is a pretty powerful word in the Liberal Dictionary, and I think plenty of us are still longing for the promise that was candidate Obama in 2008.

Still...can't remember the last time that President Obama gave a speech that caused me to pump my fist in the air--and his speech today had me doing it several times.  Not a bad day for the good guys....

Peace,
emaycee