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In reply to the discussion: Tell me more about how this White House doesn't know how to negotiate, we're all fucked, etc... [View all]JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Those programs exist. The GOP hates them. As a result, they are always on the table.
And didn't you know ... Obama put them on the table back when he created the debt commission. YUP, that's what I heard here on DU back then.
Then, he was absolutely going to announce cuts at the 2010 SOTU ... didn't happen. Was going to be in his 2010 budget, didn't happen. Was going to be in the 2011 budget ... was going to be in debt ceiling deal.
Each time, it has been predicted in an endless series of DU threads, each more certain than the last. Here it comes, any second.
And then ... nothing.
But its a great mechanism to manufacture outrage against Obama here on DU.
For awhile DADT predictions played a similar role here on DU. Endless predictions that Obama would never end it. The Social Security outrage is more effective however ... even if Obama never touches it, the outrage can repeat itself over and over with each fight between Obama and the GOP. And when the evil thing Obama wants to do doesn't happen, oh well ...
just cause it didn't happen, that doesn't mean that Obama doesn't really want to do it.
Its a perfect perceptual outrage machine. No matter how often it fails, just crank it up and it spits out more manufactured outrage widgets.