Obama draws a line on GOP demands

It was the Democrats turn to have a tete-a-tete with Obama and our President set the goalposts for the debt ceiling negotiations:

According to multiple meeting attendees, the president reiterated on several occasions that a deal to raise the country's debt ceiling would include revenue increases, even as Republican lawmakers insist that such a deal should be restricted to spending cuts and entitlement reforms.

...One of those lawmakers, who agreed to speak about the event on condition of anonymity, said that members were "worried that the Obama Administration would cave [in debt ceiling negotiations] because Republicans were willing to default on our debt if they don’t get what they want."

The President responded by saying it was vital to have revenues as part of the mix, stressing that a budget can't be balanced on non-defense discretionary spending or the "backs of the most vulnerable." Obama added, according to the member, that, "he would not support extending the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent again no matter what hostages Republicans took."

Also, "Pelosi was adamant that the party not cut Medicare benefits." Which given the upset victory in the NY state special would appear to be the winning strategy.

On the not so bright side, I see little reason to hope the scheduled drawdown of troops in Afghanistan will be anything more than symbolic. Yet no one seems to be able to articulate why we're staying. It's not like there's anything to even "win" there and the bin Laden mission demonstrated military might is not the way to fight terrorism. Thinking the real reason they won't bring the troops home is, there's no jobs for them when they get here and it would just make the unemployment situation even worse than the dismal morass it is right now.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]