If you blinked, you missed Obama’s address to reporters today. To the extent the president made any news, it was that the man who spent much of the year demanding a “clean vote” on an increase in the debt ceiling now opposes any short-term deal to raise the debt ceiling, declaring, “we have unique opportunity to do something big.”
The president who has yet to propose a detailed entitlement-reform plan and who chose to vehemently demagogue the Ryan plan declared that lawmakers have to make hard decisions, “sooner rather than later.”
Obama announced he’s invited Congressional leaders to the White House on Thursday. Note that an entire six days ago, Congressional Republicans invited Obama to the Hill for a meeting and his spokesman responded that it was “not a conversation worth having.”
The president who last week invoked tax rates on corporate jets six times during his press conference said to lawmakers that he hoped both parties would “get out of their comfort zones” and be willing to make the hard choices.
ABC News’ Jake Tapper observed one of Obama’s habits most infuriating to fiscal conservatives: his repeated references to tax increases he wants or deductions he wants to eliminate as “spending in the tax code.”
After declaring that he would oppose any short-term deal that merely “kicks the can down the road,” the president who voted against raising the debt ceiling back when he was a senator closed by saying he hoped “everybody leaves their ultimatums at home.”