Today, President Obama said 80 percent of the public supports Democrats' demand for tax increases.   "The American people are sold.  The problem is members of Congress are dug in ideologically."

Demanding to have less money sounds odd, because it is.   A new Rasmussen Reports national survey found only 34% thought tax hikes were a valid part of the solution.   

A government that believes $200,000 spent for each job created or even 'saved' was a good deal is likely to believe the silent majority wants to keep less of its own money in return for expensive government pensions, another war, this time in Libya, and lousy health care.  But it's hard to imagine where those numbers came from.   The 34% is easy enough to dismiss as bad sampling but the President of the United States should be using clean numbers - he is not campaigning now, this is the real thing.

Vilifying people who want to cap spending and balance the budget as 'special interests' seems a little strange.  It's math - we spend too much and the tax base is not enough.  Spend less.  When the economy is better, your tax base goes up.  Simple.

Or not.  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), member of the Congressional Black Caucus, implied President Obama can't raise the debt ceiling because of his race.   "Read between the lines.  What is different about this president that should put him in a position that he should not receive the same kind of respectful treatment of when it is necessary to raise the debt limit in order to pay our bills, something required by both statute and the 14th amendment?"