Was the Dog Food Commission Report a Hoax?

Dog food commission?  After yesterday’s article, reviewing the preliminary Deficit Commission report, a friend remarked that cat is getting too expensive for the poor and middle classes to afford.  I had to agree.  So cat food will be relegated to fat cats who can obtain it from Republican Socialism for the rich.  And since our economy is going to the dogs, I shall refer to the Deficit Commission as the Dog Food Commission henceforth.  My impression was that it was almost too draconian to be real.  And maybe it is just that.

On Wednesday, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, co-chairs of Obama’s deficit reduction commission, released their own recommendations for balancing the budget. It’s being treated as a very serious proposal by much of the corporate media, but it is in fact deeply unserious — it’s a profoundly regressive, unrealistic set of proposals that wouldn’t get the support of 14 of the commission’s 18 members — required to spur Congressional action — much less enough votes to pass on the Hill.

It should be seen for what it is: a opening gambit in a campaign to shift yet more of the risks of a modern capitalist society off the shoulders of corporations and the highest-earners and on to working families. The chairmen’s proposals are intended to lay the groundwork for the Commission’s report, due before December 1, by making them seem reasonable in comparison. It’s all Kabuki theater, but with a nefarious end… [emphasis added]

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The author goes on to document his assertion.  I encourage you to click through.

If this is correct, as I strongly suspect, the Republican and DINO co-chairs have staked out a solidly right wing stance as a starting point for negotiation.  However Machiavellian their intent, I have to admire their political strategy.  It is certainly more effective that the current Democratic strategy of giving up first and negotiating after Republicans move the goal posts even further to the right.