How ready are you for the general election campaign to start?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
So now what?
It’s no surprise that Rick Santorum is hanging it up. The only person who didn't acknowledge his campaign was over was Rick Santorum.
Newt Gingrich is toast. He even said over the weekend Mitt Romney is the most likely nominee. And Ron Paul doesn't have enough delegates to fill a phone booth.
Which means - ready? The general election game is on.
Romney and Barack Obama have already started taking shots at each other. But now, and for the next seven months, it turns into a blood sport.
Unlimited PAC money for vicious attack ads. Saturation bombing of the airwaves, especially in swing states, as the parties to try to persuade the electorate that theirs is the better path.
I think if I lived in Ohio I would be inclined to move - just until after the election.
The truth will be stretched and distorted and manipulated until it's no longer recognizable.
And all this will happen while Romney and Obama look us straight in the eye and solemnly swear that if we just elect them, all our problems will be solved.
The truth is, neither one of them can begin to solve our problems. The problems are too big and the mechanism for solving them - the federal government - is too badly broken.
But it won't matter. They'll both promise us anything if we will just vote for them.
Here’s my question to you: How ready are you for the general election campaign to start?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Instead of the Buffett Rule, why doesn't President Obama talk about cutting spending?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
President Obama's push for the Buffett Rule is nothing more than election year baloney.
And that's putting it nicely.
Fact is, if the proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy passes - which it won't - it will raise less than $5 billion a year in additional revenue - for the next ten years. This country, under Mr. Obama, is running $1 trillion-plus deficits annually. $5 billion a year is less than a drop in the bucket.
The so-called Buffett Rule is based on the idea that millionaires and billionaires, like Warren Buffett, shouldn't pay a lower percentage of their income in federal taxes than middle class Americans.
President Obama wants millionaires to pay at least 30% of their income in federal taxes. Senate Democrats are expected to vote on similar legislation next week.
This is all great politics if you're running for re-election. Divide the country along economic lines. Those nasty one-percenters versus the masses. Class warfare at its finest.
But there is no talk of cutting spending - spending which has added more to the national debt under President Obama in three and a half years than under former President George W. Bush in eight years.
A report out today says Obamacare will add $340 billion to the deficit over the next decade.
In a likely effort to get ahead of the criticism, the Obama Administration acknowledges that the Buffett Rule will do absolutely nothing to bring the deficit down and get the debt under control. They say it's all about fairness.
They're using it to talk about the wealthy - conveniently including Mitt Romney - paying their "fair share."
Republicans call it an election year stunt - which it clearly is.
Tax experts say the Buffett Rule would only further complicate an already complex tax code.
Here’s my question to you: Instead of the Buffett Rule, why doesn't President Obama talk about cutting spending?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 5pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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