“Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the deficit and the economy,”
Gosh, that sounds like “revenue enhancement” already is a done deal. Chris Christie didn’t need to review all his revenue options because he took a completely difference strategic approach to the problem he faced. He is bound and determined to close a massive budget gap entirely through spending cuts rather than trying to soak the taxpayers even more.
Thus, Obama can hem and haw and actual casual about whether he will or won’t endorse a VAT, but his answer to the question suggests he’s not thinking about the deficit problem the way Chris Christie did. This is why we need housecleaning next fall. Bill Clinton boasts about turning around the budget to create a stream of surpluses that would have wiped out our entire deficit. But he never mentions that it was Republican majority in Congress elected in 1994 that held his feet to the fire on spending and forced him into these balanced budgets. It’s pretty clear Obama won’t change his thinking on such matters without a lot of “prodding” by Congress.
This is merely strategic positioning for the bigger battles of 2011...just how BIG will the cuts be to move the budget toward balance.
Then again, maybe, just maybe the dims ARE stupid enough to advocate a tax increase on every single person resident in the USA.
One can hope, right?
“...(Clinton) never mentions that it was Republican majority in Congress elected in 1994 that held his feet to the fire on spending and forced him into these balanced budgets.”
Exactly right. This was one of the few great victories for conservatives in the past several decades. But what did the Republican majority do when George Bush came into office? They caved on fiscal responsibility and the era of massive deficits resumed. Can we say “Never again”?