From “Wasting Warren Buffett,” Thomas L. Friedman, NYT:
“What the president should have done is follow the advice of the Princeton University economist and former Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder, namely lay out a specific ‘three-step rehab program for our nation’s fiscal policy.’ Call it the Obama Plan; it should combine a near-term stimulus on job-creating infrastructure, a phase-in, as the economy improves, of ‘something that resembles the 10-year Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan — which would pay for the stimulus 15-20 times over’ and a specific plan to ‘bend the health care cost-curve downward.’
“When the Grand Bargain talks with John Boehner fell apart, Obama retreated to his base when he should have rallied the center by laying out — in detail — the Grand Bargain the country needs. That would have forced Romney to speak in detail about his plan — the Paul Ryan plan — and reveal it for what it is: a radical plan that few Americans would embrace if they understood it.
“Then people would see a real choice: a tough-minded-but-centrist plan with real bipartisan support versus a radical plan to gut Medicare, give more tax cuts to the already wealthy and drastically shrink discretionary spending so eventually nothing is left for education, veterans, roads, research, the F.B.I. or the poor.” Emphasis added.
Embattled Farmers 