"Fifteen months ago, Obama warned that 'all of us have a choice to make: We have to choose whether we’re going to be politicians first or partners for progress, whether we’re going to put success at the polls ahead of the lasting success we can achieve together for America.' 

"It’s pretty clear now which choice the president has made. 

"And it’s not the one in which America wins."

"I cannot remember a more depressing week in Washington. 

"The Republicans boasted a heroic accomplishment: slashing $38.5 billion from the budget, purportedly the largest cuts in history. 

"But the cake was made from sawdust. 

"Strip away the gimmicks and shine a light on the shadows, and it turns out the real cuts amounted to $352 million, or less than 1 percent of what was promised."

"We initially supported the deal House Speaker John Boehner cut with the White House to cut $38.5 billion from the rest of the fiscal year 2011 budget. It was only a pittance in the context of all of Washington’s red ink, but it seemed an acceptable start, even if we assumed it would be imperfect in its details. What we didn’t assume was that the agreement would be shot through with gimmicks and one-time savings. What had looked in its broad outlines like a modest success now looks like a sodden disappointment. ... 

"As they push a bargain that is still not fully understood, Boehner and the leadership have put their members in an awful fix with another deadline to keep the government open fast approaching. We’d vote 'no,' even if we understand the impulse to move on to more important matters and to avoid a leap into the dark that might include a politically damaging shutdown. At the very least, freshmen and other conservatives should be frank about the deal’s shortcomings, refusing to exaggerate its merits as their leadership often has. The episode is strike one against the speakership of John Boehner."

"If the Democratic Party gives up the vast spending that is driving the nation to fiscal catastrophe, they undermine their ability to win elections as a national political party. They will fight for years to prevent such a spending 'drought.'... 

"But even confiscating all the income of the rich cannot sufficiently fund the reduction in deficits. Nor can slight-of-hand waste, fraud and abuse savings in the entitlements cover the gap. Ultimately, the Democrats either will not in fact deal with the deficit or they will have to do so by very highly taxing the middle class (either way, they want to keep spending, but they will try to hide those alternative realities). ... 

"Politics is about to get much uglier -- but possibly more productive."

"With his speech Wednesday, President Obama will try to claim leadership in the fight against the debt tsunami. But he's already had his chance to lead — many of them, in fact — and he blew it. ... 

"Obama might think that, with a nice new speech, he can wipe this sorry slate clean and redraw himself as a responsible and reasonable fiscal hawk. Republicans, and the public at large, would all do well not to take him at his word."

"This is getting to be a habit. President Obama ferociously resists tax cuts, trade agreements and spending cuts -- right up to the moment he strikes a deal with Republicans and hails the tax cuts, trade agreements and spending cuts as his idea. What a difference an election makes. 

"This is the larger political meaning of Friday's last minute budget deal for fiscal 2011 that averted a government shutdown. Mr. Obama has now agreed to a pair of tax cut and spending deals that repudiate his core economic philosophy and his agenda of the last two years -- and has then hailed both as great achievements. Republicans in Washington have reversed the nation's fiscal debate and are slowly repairing the harm done since the Nancy Pelosi Congress began to set the direction of government in 2007."

"Ryan’s overall plan tilts at every windmill imaginable, including corporate welfare and agricultural subsidies. The only thing left out is Social Security. Which proves only that Ryan is not completely suicidal. 

"But the blueprint is brave and profoundly forward-looking. It seeks nothing less than to adapt the currently unsustainable welfare state to the demographic realities of the 21st century. Will it survive the inevitable barrage of mindless, election-driven, 30-second attack ads ...? Alternate question: Does Obama have half of Ryan’s courage?

"I think not (on both counts). But let’s hope so."

"[House Budget Committee Paul Ryan's] budget is a brave attempt to reverse the Obama Democrats' vast increase in the size and scope of government. The premise of their policies was that people can't make rational choices to take care of themselves and are better off depending on centralized experts to limit those choices. 

"Ryan's budget is based on the idea that people are capable of making decisions for themselves. And that the cumulative result of all those decisions, made by millions of people, will result in greater productivity, creativity and protection than can ever be achieved by a few experts through centralized command and control."

"The American people want to hear the truth: Our health-entitlement programs -- Medicare and Medicaid -- are hemorrhaging taxpayer dollars, and threatening our nation's future. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 'the single greatest threat to budget stability is the growth of federal spending on health care.' 

"The Government Accountability Office has estimated the federal 75-year fiscal gap -- the difference between anticipated tax receipts and government spending -- is a staggering $76.4 trillion, or more than five times our current national debt. Entitlement spending alone accounts for more than 80 percent of that debt.

"Broad health-entitlement reform is a necessity, not a choice. As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress earlier this year, at some point the rest of the world will simply stop loaning us money if our debt continues to skyrocket. When that happens, our safety net -- and our economy -- could collapse. The time to make these choices is now."

"Today, Paul Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, is scheduled to release the most comprehensive and most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes. Ryan is expected to leap into the vacuum left by the president’s passivity. The Ryan budget will not be enacted this year, but it will immediately reframe the domestic policy debate. ... 

"The Ryan budget will put all future arguments in the proper context: The current welfare state is simply unsustainable and anybody who is serious, on left or right, has to have a new vision of the social contract. ... 

"Paul Ryan has grasped reality with both hands. He’s forcing everybody else to do the same."