Rep. Jordan tells me that in spite of the potential for political fallout, House Republicans will offer a plan for entitlement reform by the August recess… “The American people are ready for truth, facts, and some tough love measures,” says Jordan, adding, “the window to fix our country is closing rapidly and it will only get worse if we don’t act now.”

On the home page of the Office of Management and Budget website, President Obama is quoted: “Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time to try something new.”

If only he would, but the president’s proposed $3.7 trillion budget is more of the same: taxing and spending for which liberal Democrats are known and “cuts” as in Pell Grants and home heating assistance for the poor he knows congressional Democrats are unlikely to approve. It is also full of assumptions about revenue and a rosy scenario on economic growth that is more than double current growth.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of a Republican Study Committee made up of economic and socially conservative members, told me over breakfast last week, “The $1.1 trillion savings claim made by the president over 10 years is nothing. This year’s deficit is $1.5 trillion.”

The president’s budget is more a political document designed to trap Republicans into going first with serious entitlement reform than a serious proposal. The Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, both historically liberal newspapers, say he “punted” on the budget and “kicks the hard choices further down the road” (Post) and the projected deficit “would be larger, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than any deficit between 1940 and 2008″ (Journal-Constitution).

Read More: http://online.worldmag.com/2011/02/17/time-for-truth-facts-and-tough-love/