Republicans Move the Budget Goal Posts Again

Greg Sargent notes President Obama has included budget items specifically asked for by Sen. Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner “to show he’s serious” but now it’s not good enough.

“In late December, a Boehner aide told Bloomberg News that the Speaker wanted Chained CPI more than other entitlement cuts, such as raising the Medicare eligibility age, as the two were negotiation over a possible cuts-for-revenues swap to avert the fiscal cliff.”

“And in late November, Mitch McConnell explicitly told the Wall Street Journal that if Obama offered entitlement changes such as Chained CPI and Medicare means testing, Republicans would consider new revenue. He actually said this: ‘those are the kinds of things that would get Republicans interested in new revenue.'”

The bottom line: “There is literally nothing that Obama can offer Republicans — not even things they themselves have asked for — that would induce them to agree to a compromise on new revenues.”