FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
When President Obama announced the formation of the deficit reduction commission, he looked at us all with a straight face and said he was serious about tackling the country's skyrocketing deficits and $13 trillion plus national debt.
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Apparently that was just another "feel good" moment that meant absolutely nothing.
In addition to agreeing with the Republicans to add another $900 billion or so to the national debt by extending the Bush tax cuts, President Obama is also refusing his own deficit reduction commission's call for a summit with congressional leaders to tackle the debt crisis.
One person who attended the deficit meeting last week tells Politico that members of the administration who attended - including White House budget director and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, "didn't exactly jump at the idea."
The commission recently voted 11-to-7 to cut nearly $4 trillion in deficits over the next nine years through spending cuts and tax increases. But they were short the necessary 14 votes to formally recommend any of this stuff to Congress - which can now give the whole idea a wink and a nod as we spiral ever closer to insolvency.
Not only has the president rejected the idea of a summit on the national debt; he couldn't even be bothered to attend the meeting last Thursday.
Needless to say, committee members were annoyed. One Democrat tells CNN the president should have at least dropped by... you think?
President Obama is either getting some very bad advice these days, or his once-keen political instincts have completely deserted him.
Here’s my question to you: How serious is President Obama about cutting the deficit?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Ken in California writes:
The only time any president and Congress will get serious about deficit reduction is when other nations refuse any further loans, and start calling for payments on that borrowing. I guess everything comes to an end, including nations, but what is our hurry? Are we stupid or what?
Donald writes:
Clearly President Obama is a spender and not a saver. Perhaps he naively thought the deficit reduction commission report would contain a magic, pain-free answer to America's financial predicament. More likely, though, he viewed it as a painless way to avoid having to deal with overspending until after the midterms. A lot of good that strategy did him. The president is obviously not serious about cutting the deficit.
Tom in Maine writes:
Jack, The president is not focused on deficit reduction whatsoever. No one is. The left is willing to spend us into oblivion because they honestly think they ought to; people need help. The right is willing to saddle generations to come simply out of greed. Sadly, I do not see anything changing in the foreseeable future. We're screwed, and so are our kids.
James writes:
Give Obama a break, Jack. The deficit-cutting decision is not made in a vacuum and he didn't cause this mess. I agree the tax cuts should end and we all need to chip in and pay our debt. But the economy is also very fragile and taxes going up right now may cause a double-dip recession. What we ought to do is cut the overinflated federal pay-scale by about 10 to 20 percent. It's a start on cutting the spending side of things.
Dave writes:
Obviously, he could care less. The question should be: What has taken you so long to ask this question?
Steve in Maryland writes:
Alan Greenspan told George Bush if he didn't stop running up the deficit he'd go blind. George said I'll just do it until I need glasses and let the next guy go blind. Obama lost his sight the second he got elected and now we have the blind leading the blind.
Bob in Pennsylvania writes:
Is this a trick question?