Morning Joe 7/19/2011 -- Debt ceiling confusion

On Morning Joe, the campaign to frame Tea Party conservatives as obstacles to a great deal continues. Harold Ford said if the TP cons would accept Obama's deal that it's an outstanding deal. The criticism of the TP cons is they are proposing a cut, cap and balance plan which won't get past the Senate, and that Obama has talked about a 4 trillion Grand Bargain that could pass. The confusion comes in when there are questions about Obama's Grand Bargain -- what is it? Some have guessed at what it is, and they say it's really more taxes than real spending cuts. However, Joe Scarborough, who criticized the TP cons for proposing a cut, cap and balance plan which won't go anywhere, stated Republicans should call Obama's bluff and make him state the specifics of his plan, then when Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi refuse to deal with Medicare and SS, they can be blamed as obstructionists. Scarborough is obviously confused -- neither proposal will pass according to Sacrborough, so why is the bluff better than an honest, straightforward proposal to do something about our debt crisis?

Obama's Bluff is designed to draw Republicans in and corner them into accepting the tax hikes and future spending promises. The media will never blame Reid and Pelosi for not accepting Medicare and SS reforms -- they will say the Republicans demanded extreme cuts to entitlements, therefore they couldn't go along -- then the deadline will approach, and the media will go into overdrive blaming Republicans for screwing up the Grand Bargain (Obama's Bluff) by being ideologically rigid. Republicans will cave, and the debt will soar on -- a free bird of irresponsibility and national suicide.

The great irony in all this is that it's the Democrats who are stuck in ideological rigidity -- they believe the rich in America should pay for the costs, no matter how high, of social justice, and that is what the tax hikes/loopholes/revenue enhancers are all about. It's the ideology of class warfare -- it's a cynical ideology that maintains a large voting base. The New Republicans are being pragmatic and concentrating on the problem at hand -- a bad economy and overwhelming debt that will keep unemployment high. The media have turned the table and made the New Republicans out to be ideological extremists, when they are the only practical ones in the game -- and the pseudo-intellectuals of the political class are backing the media's narrative. They're shameless.