Where's the Imagination?

Obama plans to cut the deficit significantly during his first (and only?) term.

We can always dream can't we? Especially if Timmy Geithner is the go to guy.

First, he's going to scale down the Iraqi War. Perhaps. If money, rather than strategy drives the train when it comes to Iraq, he might be successful. But it could be a case of being a penny wise and pound foolish. Iraq, to use Democratic Party parlance, is an investment rather than just an expense. Then the events in Afghanistan may take some of those "savings" away. It will be curious to see how General Jones, the national security advisor, reacts. But then again, he can be rolled.

Tax the rich. Well, so much for an economic recovery. Why work harder when the result will be heading to the government's coffers? "Rich" is a fairly flexible term.

Streamline the government. Gee, why didn't anyone think of that before?

What's curious, and perhaps we'll see a glimpse of it on Tuesday, is any cut in non-defense discretionary spending. If not, this will be an exercise in enumerating the same old bromides on the deficit.

However, those bromides didn't come in the wake of an $800 billion spending bill.