The Plumline re President Obama's speech tomorrow: Moderately Encouraging Signs?

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Moderately encouraging signs?
By Greg Sargent

A bunch of people today have been proceeding, with dismay, from the assumption — reported in various places — that the President’s deficit reduction speech tomorrow will embrace the Simpson-Bowles approach. But there are increasing signs that this may not be the case, and that Obama will lay out a vision uniquely his own that could — conceivably — be better than expected for liberals.

At the White House press briefing today, spokesman Jay Carney hinted that all the reporting out there today is wrong, and insisted Obama’s vision would not be based solely on any particular plan.

What’s more, other stories out there today are encouraging. The Los Angeles Times, for instance, reports that Obama tomorrow will draw a sharp contrast with the GOP by insisting on tax hikes for the rich. Crucially, the story even suggests the model for what Obama will do is the 2005 fight over Social Security, in which Dems drew a hard line on entitlements and refused to budge.

Obviously that is a very optimistic read on what will happen. But I can say that the White House has indicated to me that Simpson-Bowles will not be the primary foundation for Obama’s speech. Ezra Klein was told the same.

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