Duped by Obama?

Quite possibly. Andrew Sullivan makes the case.

The [fiscal] crisis is the cost of future entitlements and defense, about which Obama proposes nothing. Yes, there's some blather. But Obama will not risk in any way any vulnerability on taxes to his right or entitlement spending to his left. He convened a deficit commission in order to throw it in the trash. If I were Alan Simpson or Erskine Bowles, I'd feel duped. And they were duped. All of us who took Obama's pitch as fiscally responsible were duped.

We can hope for something substantial to happen after the 2012 elections, perhaps, but I am more and more resigned to the likelihood that nothing substantial will change in our fiscal policy unless and until it becomes completely unavoidable. ('Unavoidable' as in when the US just can't borrow money because no one will lend it to us at a reasonable rate and almost all tax dollars go to interest and entitlements). I sincerely hope that both Sullivan and I are wrong.