Our Saviour: Calling Their Bluff

From Stephen Spruiell at Nationl Review Online and what Obama means by calling their bluff.

Today at the meeting of the G20, leaders of the advanced economies announced their intention to "halve deficits by 2013 and stabilize or reduce government debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016." President Obama said:

Somehow people say, why are you doing that, I'm not sure that's good politics. I'm doing it because I said I was going to do it and I think it's the right thing to do. People should learn that lesson about me because next year when I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits and debt step-up because I'm calling their bluff. We'll see how much of that, how much of the political arguments that they're making right now are real and how much of it was just politics.
To me, the indirect reference to the Republican party signals that the "difficult choices" Obama plans to present to the country will mostly involve broad-based tax increases, and that he plans to lob accusations of hypocrisy at any Republican who criticizes him for breaking his pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000.
Because, as we've learned by watching the debates over the stimulus bill, the health-care bill, the financial-regulation bill, etc. unfold, if you oppose the way Obama wants to fix the problem, then he will say you must be opposed to fixing the problem, even if you've put forward your own competing solution or solutions to the problem.