Not content to share his obviously superior analytical skills with us a mere twice each week, E.J. Dionne has resorted to blogging within the Washington Post’s website.

Mr. Dionne, concerning today’s presidential press conference, opines thus:

At his news conference Wednesday, President Obama put a question to congressional Republicans that should be asked over and over and over until they blink: Are they really willing to risk the nation’s credit and economic turmoil in order to preserve tax breaks for corporate jets, outlandishly low tax rates for hedge fund managers and loopholes for the oil companies?

Here’s a counter-question for Mr. Dionne:

Are Democrats really willing to risk the nation’s credit and economic turmoil in order to punish those who are funding our currently unsustainable fairy tale wish list of goodies for all, costs be damned?

In all seriousness, the real question is not “why won’t Republicans raise taxes?”, the question is “why won’t Democrats live within our means?”

The Democrats, and their sycophant Mr. Dionne, have set up a false choice. Democrats set up the choice as either raise taxes or damn grandma and the kids to a life of endless suffering. But raising taxes is not the only possible choice here. Cutting spending to coincide with current (and projected) revenues is also a viable alternative. Pretending alternatives don’t exist shows you fear your choice will not stand scrutiny when other choices are presented as alternatives.

Democrats should accept that there is not going to be a tax increase as part of the debt ceiling negotiations. Republicans cannot do it. Democrats would be better served figuring out the programs they can live with out. Agricultural and ethanol subsidies immediately spring to mind.

Democrats have no one to blame for their uncomfortable predicament but themselves. Their years of overspending without an ounce of concern over ability to pay has led them to this point.

'Puter

Always right, unless he isn’t, the infallible Ghettoputer F. X. Gormogons claims to be an in-law of the Volgi, although no one really believes this.

’Puter carefully follows economic and financial trends, legal affairs, and serves as the Gormogons’ financial and legal advisor. He successfully defended us against a lawsuit from a liquor distributor worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid deliveries of bootleg shandies.

The Geep has an IQ so high it is untestable and attempts to measure it have resulted in dangerously unstable results as well as injuries to researchers. Coincidentally, he publishes intelligence tests as a side gig.

His sarcasm is so highly developed it borders on the psychic, and he is often able to insult a person even before meeting them. ’Puter enjoys hunting small game with 000 slugs and punt guns, correcting homilies in real time at Mass, and undermining unions. ’Puter likes to wear a hockey mask and carry an axe into public campgrounds, where he bursts into people’s tents and screams. As you might expect, he has been shot several times but remains completely undeterred.

He assures us that his obsessive fawning over news stories involving women teachers sleeping with young students is not Freudian in any way, although he admits something similar once happened to him. Uniquely, ’Puter is unable to speak, read, or write Russian, but he is able to sing it fluently.

Geep joined the order in the mid-1980s. He arrived at the Castle door with dozens of steamer trunks and an inarticulate hissing creature of astonishingly low intelligence he calls “Sleestak.” Ghettoputer appears to make his wishes known to Sleestak, although no one is sure whether this is the result of complex sign language, expert body posture reading, or simply beating Sleestak with a rubber mallet.

‘Puter suggests the Czar suck it.