Finally, Calling the Republi-CON Bluff and Breaking the Republi-CON Fever

UPDATE IV:  "It’s time to entertain the possibility that President Obama is a right-wing extremist. After all, look at where he’s taking the country over his second term. . .

His budget should put to rest those crazy claims that he is some sort of Norwegian socialist."

Read The New York Times, Bold on Both Ends.

UPDATE III:  The Republi-cons are lying again, but what's new.  Read The Atlantic, Reality Check: Obama Cuts Social Security and Medicare by Much More Than the GOP. 

UPDATE II:  "If the White House’s political goal in calling for Social Security cuts in its budget was to reveal the GOP as the intransigent, uncompromising party in Washington, it’s having the desired effect."

Read the Washington Post, GOP leaders: By all means, cut Social Security, but don’t tax the rich. 

UPDATE:  "Over these last few months, the White House has been engaged in a systematic effort to call the GOP’s various bluffs. . .

This budget sets up that debate. Republicans are, at this point, out of excuses. They can’t say the president isn’t reaching out to them. They can’t say he’s not willing to make painful concessions — or, to rephrase, they can say that, but given all the on-the-record quotes of Republican leaders demanding the White House accept means-testing Medicare and chained-CPI, no one will take them seriously. The White House is calling their bluff. The question is whether, as the pressure mounts, they double down against compromise, or they begin to fold."

Read the Washington Post, Obama’s budget calls the GOP’s bluffs. 

For years I've suggested calling the Republi-con bluff.  And that may be the focus of Obama's second term.

"The president's hard line on the Bush tax cuts represents the first major test case for his theory that the GOP 'fever' can be broken in his second term." Read The Atlantic, Obama Won't Play That Way, Fiscal Cliff Edition, which notes of Obama:  "Goodbye, conciliator. Hello, Mr. Tough Love."

And you might remember, almost a year ago I discussed 'the GOP's dual trigger nightmare' (now commonly called the 'fiscal cliff') and asked: Did Obama Con the Republi-CONs?   So it appears that Obama has been planning this little show down for some time.