Reaction to President Obama's "don't call my bluff" warning is today's proof that we live in parallel universes. First, Charles Krauthammer:
President Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won't sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?”
How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission's recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10?trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached?
All of a sudden he's a born-again budget balancer prepared to bravely take on his own party by making deep cuts in entitlements. Really? Name one. He's been saying forever that he's prepared to discuss, engage, converse about entitlement cuts. But never once has he publicly proposed a single structural change to any entitlement.
And here's Eugene Robinson:
Eric, don't call my bluff."
Those words suggest President Obama has had it up to here with the preening and posturing of Republican "negotiators" who won't negotiate. Who could blame him?
Obama's warning to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor came at the abrupt conclusion of Wednesday's talks about the debt-ceiling crisis. The unamused president asked whether Ronald Reagan would have put up with such time-wasting nonsense, then uttered another memorable line: "I've reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this."
It's never been truer: What you see depends on where you stand. These two columnists are looking at the same set of players in the same debt-ceiling talks and not merely coming to different conclusions about what's right and who's wrong. They're preaching to such different choirs that each side sees the other as delusional.
