Obama hasn’t won any prizes for his handling of soaring deficits and a dangerously high federal debt. First, he kicked the can down the road by setting up a bipartisan fiscal commission. Then when the commission came out with its recommendations, Obama was noncommital in his response.
His proposed fiscal year 2012 budget, released in February, was panned for failing to address the medical entitlements – the biggest drivers of the looming crisis. Then when Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee, put out a budget plan with dramatic cuts, Obama responded with a “framework” for deficit reduction that was notably vague on how it would achieve promised major savings in Medicare and Medicaid.
Obama gets low marks from voters on his handling of the deficit. The latest Gallup poll shows 61 percent disapproval and only 33 percent approval. Though when the choice is Democrats versus Republicans on this issue, neither party has an edge.
But the biggest factor mitigating the deficit as a campaign liability for Obama is the Ryan plan. The congressman would end Medicare and Medicaid as open-ended entitlements, limiting payments to seniors for the purchase of insurance under Medicare and turning Medicaid into block grants. Obama now has a big opening to argue that Republicans want to “throw Grannie under the bus.” Same with the poor and disabled. He’s already going there.
