All Dems want is more taxing and spending

It's who they are. Year in, year out, their response to finding us in a hole is to keep digging. That's why compromising with them is always bad news.

On spending and taxes, it's Obama vs. America. Jennifer Rubin:

The White House dished out the spin that suddenly the Tea Party crowd had nixed a deal. In reality, the White House had upped the ante on taxes. A Republican House aide told me that the White House “started to backpedal on entitlement reforms too.” He explained, “They [the White House] had started to go back on some of the Medicare and Medicaid reforms they had previously said they were ok with.” In other words, either the White House never intended to present a viable grand bargain, or, if Obama did, the left got to him. [. . .]

Friday’s Rose Garden remarks by President Obama were as damning as the unemployment numbers. An eagle-eyed Capitol Hill Republican points to a telling contrast that highlights the intellectual cul-de-sac in which Obama now finds himself.

On Friday he proclaimed: “And over the past few months, the economy has experienced some tough headwinds — from natural disasters, to spikes in gas prices, to state and local budget cuts that have cost tens of thousands of cops and firefighters and teachers their jobs.”

In the Rose Garden last summer he proclaimed: “And that’s why today we’re trying to pass a law that will save hundreds of thousands of additional jobs in the coming year. It will help states avoid laying off police officers, firefighters, nurses and first responders. And it will save the jobs of teachers like the ones who are standing with me today.”

In other words, Obama’s policies have flopped, and the flops now are supposed to justify more of the same.

Rasmussen:

Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters nationwide believe that cuts in government spending are good for the economy.  Just 11% think such spending cuts hurt the economy. Fifty-four percent (54%) also believe that raising taxes will hurt the economy.  [emphasis added]

J-Ru also wrote:

If the Republicans' position (no tax hikes but significant spending cuts) holds, they will have avoided following Obama down the rabbit hole of class warfare and Keynesian obsession. The alternative would chase off their base and leave them with no message to attract voters fed up with the president’s mismanagement of the economy. The contrast they appear to be drawing with the president could not be more stark. 

Right. I don't see how a responsible, sane GOP (and yes, those are qualifiers) can possibly come to an agreement of any kind with the tax-and-spend Dems.

***

Oh, wait. There is one area Dems are willing to cut. Omri Ceren:

It’s mindblowing that Democrats simultaneously push for $700 billion in defense cuts while demanding  government retain its expansionary spending programs. Those Republicans willing to trade robust national security to avert tax hikes have deeply flawed priorities, but at least these are identifiable priorities that can be debated.

But Democrats are pushing for cuts in military spending while insisting we need more overall spending. They support increased spending because they believe large government outlays – in the Keynesian sense, where we should pay people to dig holes rather than let scared money remain on the sidelines — are good. That belief borders on sheer incoherence. And they’re doing it just as a Democratic President has embraced a doctrine that advocates the use of force, permitting open-ended unilateral warfare, based solely on humanitarian grounds. The president now decides on Tuesdays to go to war on Fridays. So we may actually need some weapons sooner or later.

Read the rest.

Many thanks to Mark Steyn for the Corner link. Corner readers, please make yourselves at home.
Bob comments to tell me I've got my own Memeorandum thread -- a first!
Linked at MichelleMalkin.com -- many thanks.
Also linked at The Camp of the Saints -- thanks to Bob, who has the tar and feathers ready.

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