Accomplishing nothing except the kick-off of his 2012 Re-election Campaign, President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), yesterday afternoon, used his bully pulpit to demand tax increases and miniscule spending cuts he claimed would reduce deficits by $4 trillion over 12 years (not nearly enough). At the same time, he attacked Republicans’ deficit proposal as an assault on the elderly and poor.

In a related story…

President Barack Obama’s approval among the poorest Americans dropped to an all-time low of 48 percent last week, according to the Gallup poll, leaving the president with less-than-majority approval among all income brackets reported in Gallup’s presidential approval surveys.

Each week, Gallup publishes the president’s average approval rating for the previous week among four income brackets: those who earn $2,000 per month or less, those who earn between $2,000 and $4,999 per month, those who earn between $5,000 and $7,499 per month, and those who earn $7,500 per month or more.

That wasn’t factored into his speech, was it? Naw, not at all. Moving on…

Obama continued his seemingly-endless campaign speech by saying that he wants a final deficit reduction deal by June, and blasted the House Republican proposal on the table now as not being “serious.” He also imperiously proclaimed that he said he would not work with Republicans on Medicare, Medicaid, or extending all of the Bush-era tax cuts.

So, there. Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah.

I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs. I will not tell families with children who have disabilities that they have to fend for themselves. We will reform these programs, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations.

Republicans replied immediately, saying that they would not go along with Scooter’s proposed tax increases and also saying that the Pentagon would not be able to absorb the $400 billion in defense cuts that Obama wants in place by 2023.

Speaker of the House John Boehner said:

Any plan that starts with job-destroying tax hikes is a non-starter. We need to grow our economy — not our government.

Obama announced that VP Joe Biden will be leading Congressional meetings early next month to attempt to have a bipartisan deficit-reduction deal completed by the end of June.

That is, if Joe’s woken up from his nap during Scooter’s speech, yet.

Obama wants Biden to somehow come up with an extra $360 billion by 2023 from automatic spending programs, which are based on formulas and not renewed by Congress each year; steal an additional $480 billion from Medicare; and cut America’s defense spending by $400 billion versus projected levels and another $200 billion in regular domestic spending.

Scooter  also wants to stop those eeevil Boooosh  tax cuts for taxpayers making over $200,000 per year, and for canceling other tax breaks many Americans receive such as the mortgage interest deduction. However, instead of having the guts to call them “tax increases”, the spineless Leader of the Free World tried to hide them by calling them “spending reductions in the tax code.”

Right, Scooter. And this is not a “Blog”, it’s a “Public Internet Diary”. Pathetic.

Obama claimed, during his speech that he was just setting parameters and expects others to suggest or actually make the cuts.

Like, for instance, with Medicare, in which the new payments board set up in last year’s health care law will clamp down tighter on cost increases, while he will have his defense secretary figure out where military funding can be cut.

That way, he can claim that any poor results are not his fault.

But, don’t worry., Gentle Reader, I’m sure that we can count on the GOP to stand strong against Obama and the Democrats during this critical time in our nation.

Or can we?

From the nationaljournal.com:

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the fiscal 2011 spending deal that Congress will vote on Thursday concludes that it would cut spending this year by less than one-one hundredth of what both Republicans or Democrats have claimed.

A comparison prepared by the CBO shows that the omnibus spending bill, advertised as containing some $38.5 billion in cuts, will only reduce federal outlays by $352 million below 2010 spending rates. The nonpartisan budget agency also projects that total outlays are actually some $3.3 billion more than in 2010, if emergency spending is included in the total.

The astonishing result, according to CBO, is the result of several factors: increases in spending included in the deal, especially at the Defense Department; decisions to draw over half of the savings from recissions, cuts to reserve funds, and mandatory-spending programs; and writing off cuts from funding that might never have been spent.

You don’t have to cry over this, Speaker Boehner.  We’ll do it for you.

Unless more Republicans begin showing some backbone, like Rep. Paul Ryan did yesterday, there is going to be a mass political evacuation on both sides of the aisle, beginning in November of 2012.