Please Obama call their bluff

I will bet a tenner it will be tax breaks lifted and more taxes inflicted. This will be his platform and when the Republicans start refusing - that is his "gotcha" moment

I don't think it's so much that HE'S waiting until after the November election as there simply not being enough time to get much done before then. I also don't think "calling their bluff" is going to do much good since we all know the Republicans, especially those in the Senate, are going to rail against anything and everything President Obama even hints at! They were all for "Pay-Go" - even though they'd been the ones to let it disappear under Bush - even to the point of several of them proposing it...that is UNTIL Obama came out for it, then they suddenly voted against their own bill! Everyone always says they're against "pork" spending, but for some strange reason it's only pork when it's being spent in someone ELSE'S backyard. I think there are many ways to cut spending without hurting too many people but I'm not sure how much impact it would have; a million here and a billion there might still be little more than a drop in the bucket but every little bit counts. There is so much waste and inefficiency, I'd guess that every federal agency could likely be streamlined to save money. For some reason the very idea of cutting the defense budget, especially when a Democrat dares suggest it, is enough to bring out the Hitler accusations but the fact is we're spending billions on outdated weapons and other equipment that haven't been used for decades. I think it's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to get the two parties to come to any agreement on what should or should not be cut because their priorities or so different and their philosophies are polar opposites of each other's. I tend to agree with the majority of economists who say the government needs to invest in the economy at times like these, that growth in itself will bring the deficit down somewhat and that we need a combination of spending cuts and increases in revenue - aka tax increases - to balance the budget and pay down our enormous debt. I find it interesting that at the exact same time that millions of those who are unemployed were denied an extension by the Republicans in the Senate the first million and billionaires' heirs were inheriting their fortunes totally tax free. That's lost tax revenue as well as lost income, small though it may be, for the unemployed, many of whom will now end up on welfare and/or as part of the statistics of those who have lost their homes to foreclosure. I think there's something terribly wrong with this picture! Annie

He already has started cutting the government. Gates has made several recommendations for reducing the devence budget and several of the heads of departments have also been recommending reductions. It would help if the senate would confirm the rest of his cabinet. They have holds on several department heads. We, the public, need to hold the Senate responsible. Congress has been doing their jobs and the president has been doing his but everything gets blocked by the senate.