budget

I'm starting to worry about Barack Obama.

I didn't used to worry about him. I thought he was the best Democrat running in the 2008 primaries, and I thought he was far superior to John McCain in the general election. I still think that. (By the way, did you hear the latest on McCain? He blamed the forest fires consuming the southwest on undocumented immigrants. When he opens his mouth these days, you don't know whether to laugh or cry.)

The Kabuki tradition in Congress over raising the federal government's debt ceiling is in full flower. It's a more reliable Washington ritual than the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Here's how it goes: The president, whoever he is, says: "It's time to raise the debt limit because… well, we need the money."

The party out of power responds with: "Oh no you don't. Borrowing more money is irresponsible. The national debt is too big already. We're going to vote against it."

Libertarians, creationists, birthers, Birchers, flat-taxers, string savers, and tin foil collectors -- all the wonderful groups that make up the tea party's intellectual wing -- came to town waving signs, shouting slogans, and collaring hapless Congresspersons in their dens.

They may not have achieved their goal of shutting down the government, but in the end, they achieved something even more improbable -- they made you feel sorry for Congress. (Makes you kind of miss the Silent Majority doesn't it?)

Republicans have criticized President Barack Obama for his "failure to lead," particularly when it comes to shrinking the budget deficit.

Well, the other day he led. He offered up a long-term plan for controlling the deficit while protecting programs that the poor and elderly depend on.

Did any Republican follow? Not a one. They accused Obama of shallowness, disingenuousness, and (get the children out of the room) partisanship.

The budget wars have begun. Duck!

President Obama delivered the first salvo by presenting his $3.5 trillion proposal for the 2012 fiscal year to Congress in a telephone book-sized document. It was very Barack -- measured and balanced. It cut a little here, put on a little there, added a pinch of taxes and came up with a budget he said would cut more than a trillion dollars from the deficit over the next 10 years.

The Republicans told us what they wanted to do in their "Pledge to America" last year: cut government, slash taxes, and shrink the national debt. But they didn't tell us how they were going to do it. Now they have.

Basically, it involves ripping the heart out of the future and burying it at the intersection of crumbling highways and a falling-down bridge to nowhere.

It's caviar and champagne for the lucky few, macaroni and cheese for the rest of us.