5 Things Republicans Should Stop Attacking

1. Economy/Jobs - Sorry, it's improving. Hard to accept, but you can't win this one.

2. Gays - Seven states have legalized gay marriage. Not enough bigots left for this to matter.

3. Birth Control - Seriously? Even Catholics are on the pill.

4. The Teleprompter  - Get over it. The President is an inspiring speaker. Also, in a sing-off, Obama's voice delivers a solid ass-whooping to Mitt's voice.

5. Iran - Did GWB teach you nothing about fucking up foreign policy? Besides, no one wants to pay for another war. 

With apologies to my friend Selene (who has reminded me more than once to stop feeding good suggestions to the GOP), I feel obligated to send this simple message to my Republican friends - it's the trillion dollar budget deficit, stupid!

Republicans find themselves faced with these facts: Under President Obama, the economy and job market have shown consistent growth, and they continue to move in the right direction. The U.S. is now out of Iraq, and the troop draw down is underway in Afghanistan. Oh yeah, did I mention that whole killing of Osama bin Laden thingy?

So, here's all you have left GOP. I'm a fairly hardcore Democrat, and even I can't stand that the President's current budget proposal, if adopted, would guarantee another year of $1 trillion deficit spending. Think about it - for four straight years, our government will have spent $1 trillion more than they collected. And what's worse, we would make minimal reductions in the next six years, adding at least another half trillion dollars per year to what we already owe. Not acceptable. Bill Clinton must be rolling over in his satin bed sheets.

The Obama administration will argue that these deficits are the price we must pay to repair the damage done to our economy by the Bush administration, and they may be right. But honestly, other than a somewhat related argument the GOP can make against Obamacare, there are no other significant issues around which they can rally enough Americans to actually beat Obama.

The sad fact for the even sadder right wing is this - if the economy continues its slow and steady improvement, Obama will win. But hey GOP - at least I'm offering you something to legitimately complain about.

Obama Gets Tough

Photo by Chip Somodevilla (Getty)

Two weeks ago I wrote a post urging the President to "fight or go home" as it relates to his attempts to negotiate with the immovable object which is the Republican Congressional block. The President has made numerous "across the aisle" overtures, and time and again, these efforts have yielded little or nothing.

I have begun to believe that the President can get more flies with a hammer than he has been able to get with honey, and based on his recently announced approach to addressing the budget deficit, the President now sees it that way too.

President Obama has laid out a common sense approach to reducing the deficit, simultaneously increasing revenues and reducing spending, while putting sacred cows from each party on the table (reductions in Medicare spending and increases in taxes on the wealthiest Americans). Those who have nothing to offer but unhelpfully entrenched policy positions have already attempted to distract us from the real issues calling the President's budget deficit proposal "class warfare." In defense of his proposal, President Obama has responded saying, "This is not class warfare. It is math." Well said, Mr. President.

Class warfare would be something like increasing taxes on the wealthy (and on corporations) in order to fund increases in the social programs that most benefit the under-privileged poor. President Obama is NOT proposing this, he is simply asking us to do what every struggling small business owner or head of household knows he or she has to do - make more and spend less at the same time.

I hope politicians on both sides come to understand how their insistence on sacred cows and their refusal to participate in real policy negotiations do nothing to resolve our complex economic challenges. I also hope that Americans on both sides demonstrate through their votes in the next election cycle that we deserve and expect more from our elected officials in Washington.