Pres. Obama: I will not renegotiate raising debt ceiling

[BlueStreak]

73. Absolutely, and he just screwed up his best opportunity to deal with in ways that are consistent

with Democratic values. By making virtually all of the Bush tax cuts PERMANENT, Obama and Norquist just teamed up to lock us into structural deficits forever.

Obama is going to try to get more revenue through loopholes and such, but he couldn't even get the oil repletion or corporate jet loopholes ended. He will not get any significant revenue from those who are taking the most wealth out of our economy. The opportunity for that just passed us up. Norquist is a very happy man this morning, because he sees the road ahead.

Norquist knows that:

a) Obama doesn't want to have $22 trillion legacy with his name on it, and now that 4 years have passed, he really can't blame any of this on Bush. Obama had his chance to end the wars. He had is chance to reverse the Bush tax policies. he had his chance to address the unfunded drug benefit. Obama has had a fair chance to deal with all of the big Bush items that but us into this deficit situation.

b) There will be no significant revenues. The opportunity for that was "the cliff". And as it worked out, nobody voted for any tax increases, so Norquist is still in business.

c) There will be no cutting Pentagon budgets, and health care costs will continue to rise faster than inflation because Obama did not take on the biggest cost explosion factors in health care.

That means Norquist and the Republicans will be trying to slash everything in sight. And remember the "good stuff" in this agreement is mostly temporary while the bad stuff is permanent.