The author, once again, provides a corrective to the narratives spun by mainstream media's portrayal of the US budget crisis.
For months, the standard narrative among progressive commentators was that Republicans were outrageously exploiting the debt ceiling deadline to impose drastic entitlement cuts on a resisting and victimized Democratic President (he's weak in negotiations!), but...the driving force behind these cuts is the President himself, who is pushing for even larger spending cuts than the GOP was ready to accept....This is another illustration of the "good cop, bad cop" theme that mainstream media likes to use to confuse ordinary Americans.