Andrew Sullivan is back from having his conservatism re-charged. And he's mad at Obama for not being a "responsible" conservative budget-slasher. And he's mad a Republican Paul Ryan for not being a "serious" and "concerned" budget-slasher:

And yet no specifics on Medicare or defense yet. Hmmm. So let Ryan propose a budget that exposes Obama's irresponsibility and complacency. Let him be the leader Obama refuses to be. Let's see the real entitlement and defense cuts the US needs if it is to avoid default or a long slide into debt-ridden stagnation. Obama has doubled down on the unseriousness of the GOP on the debt, by revealing his own total lack of concern. He is calling their bluff at the country's and the next generation's expense.

The real question now is: will the GOP call Obama's bluff? Or do they have as little courage as he does? I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I'd sure love to be proven wrong.

No, the real question is why budget hawks pretend to not understand how politics works.

If Obama was to propose a 0.1% reduction in Medicare services, nobody in either party would vote for it. Everybody knows that if they did vote for a 0.1% reduction in Medicare, it would be used against them in the 2012 campaign. And, at the same time, everybody wants the other guy to vote for it, so that they could use it against him in the 2012 campaign. It's not about Obama being "responsible", it's about the fact that cutting Medicare is political suicide for either party. All politicians know that people want Medicare (and Social Security), and they don't want it cut, and they hate people who even talk about cutting it. The constituency for actual budget hawkery is limited to wealthy political pundits.

But, budget hawks refuse to acknowledge this. The budget hawks - possessed of great stores of self-proclaimed clarity-of-thought and seriousness-of-outlook - know what's good for the masses, and want politicians to take away the very things that people time and time again say that they want. The budget hawks think serious politicians would sacrifice their careers instead of trying to do what the people who elected them demanded.

But like it or not, budget hawks, that's not how democracy works. There isn't going to be a Great Honest Responsible Leader who will step up and force people to take their medicine. It's a difficult problem and it's going to be a long, messy, compromise-filled struggle to solve it.