I'm Ready for Some Football

Here's my TV viewing schedule for this evening. Seinfeld re-runs on TBS from 6 o 7, followed by Saints-Packers pre-game on NBC at 7, followed by the kickoff somewhere around 7:30. No speech. Why bother?

By all accounts, President Obama's jobs speech before a joint session of Congress tonight will just be more of the same old, same old, Republican-lite, warmed over policies on unemployment--tax cuts. If I'm going to get yadda yadda yadda, I'd rather it be from Jerry, George, and Elaine.

"The bulk of what will be in President Obama's jobs speech Thursday will not be new stimulus. The big-ticket items will be a slightly expanded version of the continued de-funding of Social Security payroll tax cut and an extension of unemployment insurance. Together, these two pieces cost about $200 billion a year, which accounts for most of the $300-$400 billion in jobs spending that the White House is set to announce. But since they are already in effect, extending them will not, from an economic point of view, add much new demand into the economy. It will simply prevent demand from being sucked out."

Here comes the sucking out part:

"Getting less attention in the media is the follow-up speech the White House is planning, which will lay out a specific deficit-reduction agenda that not only meets the $1.5 trillion goal of the "supercommittee," but exceeds it and pays for the new jobs spending. These proposals will look quite similar to the grand bargain the White House offered Speaker John Boehner, and liberal groups are grimly preparing for the administration to call for raising the Medicare eligibility age."

So much for that short-lived pivot away from deficits to jobs. And the Democrats on the "supercommittee" are on board:

"All of us would like to set as a target for ourselves even more than $1.5 trillion," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who's also the top House Democrat on the Budget Committee, told reporters at a Tuesday Capitol press conference.

...Committee member Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) agrees with Van Hollen, and says he'd be willing to put key progressive programs on the table if it gives Congress more running room to shore up the economy now."

"Key progressive programs," aka Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Meanwhile, Majority Leader Reid is having some second thoughts on the "supercommittee":

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and other Democrats are experiencing some buyer's remorse about creating the bipartisan supercommittee that is tasked with reducing the nation's debt level.

...Reid on Wednesday said he spent the first part of the August recess calling Democratic colleagues to hear their opinions about the supercommittee. He said the conversations were sufficiently negative that he began to have second thoughts about proposing the supercommittee earlier this summer."

I feel your pain, Harry. I've been experiencing some "buyer's remorse" myself. But not about the supercommittee.

Geaux Saints.