Obama's statement on the Commission:

"I want to thank the members of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform for their important work in highlighting the magnitude of the challenge before us, and outlining an array of options to confront it.  Jobs and growth are our most urgent need. But if we want an America that can compete for the jobs of tomorrow, we simply cannot allow our nation to be dragged down by our debt.  We must correct our fiscal course.  

Nothing would be more valuable to addressing this challenge than strong, sustained economic growth. But the Commission's report underscores that to sustain growth in the medium and long term we need to face some difficult choices to curb runaway debt. It will require cutting the spending we don't need in order to invest in what's necessary to grow our economy and our middle-class. It will require all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to find common ground without compromising the fundamental principles we hold dear.  Because the undeniable fact is that no one party can successfully tackle this challenge alone.

Chairmen Bowles and Simpson met the charge that I gave them and the Commission: to bring our deficits down in the medium term and to meaningfully improve our long-run fiscal situation so that we can keep commitments made to future generations. The Commission's majority report includes a number of specific proposals that I - along with my economic team -- will study closely in the coming weeks as we develop our budget and our priorities for the coming year. This morning, my budget director, Jack Lew, spoke with Chairman Bowles and invited the entire Commission in to meet with him and Secretary Geithner to discuss the Commission's proposals. Overall, my goal is to build on the steps we've already taken to reduce our deficit, like slowing the growth of health care costs, proposing a three-year freeze in non-security discretionary spending and a two-year pay freeze for federal civilian workers, and restoring the rule that we pay for all of our priorities.  

I don't doubt our ability to meet this challenge, but our success depends on our willingness to engage in the kind of honest conversation and cooperation that hasn't always happened in Washington.  We cannot afford to fall back on old ideologies, and we will all have to budge on long-held positions.  So I ask members of both parties to maintain an open mind and a commitment to progress as we work to lift this burden from the shoulders of future generations."

My bold.

Some things that struck me about the composition of the statement:

1.  There's a "but" clause appended to every sentence about the need for jobs and economic growth; it makes me believe he has no idea how to grow the economy or create jobs, and that he is more comfortable believing that he can cut our way to growth.

2.  The report is now the "majority report," with no mention of its failure to obtain the 14 votes necessary to turn the report into recommendations.

3.  There's that blasted "common ground" again, which is built not on the right policies, but on something that's beginning to resemble "I don't care - let's just do SOMETHING, so we can check it off on the list and we can both say we tried."

4.  Bowles and Simpson working with Lew and Geithner isn't going to end well for us.

5.  Building on the steps he's already taken are only going to take us farther down the road to economic hell; is he so completley convinced of our unique American-ness that he finds no lessons to be taken from the austerity programs instituted in Ireland and Greece?

6.  He really just doesn't get it.

7.  I read somewhere that Reid has promised the Senate will vote on the report in the next session; sure am glad he'll be staying on as leader, aren't you?

I'm also thinking of my Dad who passed 6 weeks ago. He had his differences with old Ronnie over the years...I remember some swearing over men left on base in critical games on '69. Hope they are sharing a pizza and beer together now.