2012-08-15nakedcapitalism.com

As much as Bill Black's post makes a number of important observations about how the pro-austerity camp is misrepresenting its cause and the situation in Europe, it is also looking like Romney's backers will win even if they lose. Recall that Obama himself is a budget hawk; we've discussed repeatedly how "reforming" Social Security and Medicare are long standing priorities of his. There was even a point in the budget negotiations of late 2011 where Obama was pushing for deeper cuts than Boehner. But the aggressiveness of Ryan's talk will give Obama plenty of air cover, and as Dave Dayen has separately pointed out, take the focus off of some of Obama's failures, such as the state of the economy and his refusal to provide anything beyond Potemkin reforms in the housing market.



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