DEAR LEADER TO SPEAK TO US, SAVE US – AT 10:25 A.M. ET:  I have exciting news.  Barack Obama has graciously agreed to speak to his subjects this week on...debt reduction.  Before you do anything else today, please send a note of thanks to the Oval Office.  You know, dear leader doesn't have to take time off from hoops and hip-hop concerts at the White House to do this.  He does it because he loves us.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top White House political and economic adviser says President Obama will lay out new plans this week to reduce the federal deficit.

Obama adviser David Plouffe, speaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," says Obama plans to offer ideas for what Plouffe calls "long-term deficit reduction" as Congress begins to debate raising the nation's debt ceiling.

Plouffe is giving few specifics on what Obama will announce, but he says that the president believes taxes should go up on higher-income Americans. He also says that the Republican budget plan offered this week by congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin may pass the House but won't become law.

Ryan's plan would repeal Obama's signature health care reform and make significant changes to Medicare and Medicaid.

COMMENT:  Bottom line, the only reason this speech is being given is politics.  The president didn't get such hot reviews on his role in last week's government-funding crisis.  He seemed out of touch, out of ideas, out of interest.  There's an election next year, and this White House is absolutely devoted to Mr. Obama's political survival.

You can tell by the story that the demagoguing will officially begin with Obama's "ideas."  Raise taxes.  Paint Paul Ryan's excellent plan as "extreme." 

You can be sure Ryan will be ready to answer.  He always is.  But be sure of something else:  Destroying Paul Ryan is now a White House priority.  This is a president whose campaign had no problem using the race card against Hillary Clinton in 2008.   Imagine what they'll do to a rising Republican star who's red hot, and can get hotter.

This week's Obama speech may well set up a Paul Ryan moment, and it can become a moment in history.

April 10, 2011