President Obama Open to Spending Cuts?

President Obama yesterday announced his intention to call the Republican's "bluff" on out-of-control deficit spending.

"President Barack Obama held a press conference at the conclusion of the G 20 Summit in Toronto this evening, and the highlight came at the very end when he called out the GOP rhetoric on the deficit. Obama said, “I hope some of these folks hollering about deficit and debt step up, because I am calling their bluff.

The President continued and later blasted the Republicans and called out the GOP rhetoric, “I’m doing because I said I was going to do it and it’s the right thing to do, and people should learn that lesson about me, because next year when I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope people who are hollering about deficits and debt start stepping up, because I’m calling their bluff and we’ll see how much of that, how much of the political arguments they’re making right now are real and how much of it was just policies.”

If he's being honest, well then I can't wait for that debate to fire up!

There's practically no spending cut the President can propose that any person worried about exploding federal deficits and ridiculous amounts of public debt should object to.

Social security? Among the potential solutions are to raise the retirement age, means-test, and decrease promised future benefits.

Military? Slash it. Big-time. This might be the opportunity to pull US troops out of most of the 140-odd countries that we find ourselves today. Return it to its original mission of protecting the US proper, not our trade partners.

Medicare? This is a tough one. Any reasonable forecast of future spending associated with Medicare demonstrates that its costs will very soon completely dwarf the taxes paid in to it. I'm open to any and all ideas on this, but my initial thinking is colored by the idea that at some point medical care that Person A desires but expects Person B to pay for has to be rationed in a very meaningful manner.

President Obama signaling that he's open to spending cuts presents an outstanding lead-in for deficit hawks to shape the debate and provide their own ideas on how spending should be cut in a way that enables us to not only balance our budget as a nation, but begin to repay the debt that we foolishly took on over the past 40 years.