Former OMB Director Peter Orszag gives us an absurd argument for why we should extend Bush tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans for another two years but end the Bush tax cuts for everyone by 2013. To get there, Orszag has to ignore both economics and fairness and use logic and political arguments only when convenient.

Orszag literally wrote the book on benefit cuts to Social Security.

In an announcement that portends misery for much of the world’s citizens (and I’m only slightly exaggerating), the G20 communique will include a pledge from the largest nations on Earth to halve their budget deficits by 2013. Coming at a fragile time for the global economy, this descent into austerity could lead to a return to recession or worse.

The deficit hawks think we are so stupid we’ll once again fall for the Greenspan shell game: raise Social Security taxes and put the excess in a Trust Fund so it will be there when we need it. The President should be ashamed of himself, appointing this bunch of charlatans to deal with the non-problem of Social Security.

The New York Times cites an anonymous source saying that Peter Orszag will step down as the head of the Office of Management and Budget.

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform was organized by the President to get recommendations for cutting benefits and raising taxes on middle Americans. They can’t imagine any alternatives, certainly not taxing the rich, who have already suffered hurt feelings from all that ugly talk about their little screw-ups. In the process it gives the Social Security haters yet another forum. Here’s an excerpt from the incoherent Alan Simpson, a grumpy old man who used to be a Senator from Wyoming, until he quit:

If there’s a social program left standing in the moonscape Obama’s Hamilton Project masters inflicted on America, Greenstone and the Project are there to ensure Obama nukes it. If someone you care deeply about depends on Social Security – or will depend on Social Security – call them up today and tell them you love them. Because Team Obama has targeted Social Security…and your loved ones are just the MOTU’s version of collateral damage. Deaths you can believe in, right?

Presidential approval and the performance of the party in power in elections has historically been tied to economic performance, and more specifically job growth. This has been proven time and again, including with this Administration, as the President’s approval ratings and Democratic performance in the generic Congressional ballot have sunk with the economic bad news.

If the main players in Obama’s economic team – Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Council of Economic Advisers head Christina Romer, and OMB Director Peter Orzsag – can be believed, there is no relief on the horizon for jobs, meaning what you see is what you get for the midterms.

Bloomberg is reporting that Office of Management and Budget head Peter Orszag has told the intelligence committees Obama will veto the intelligence authorization because–among other reasons–it calls for re-examining the FBI’s conspiracy theory-as-investigation summary finding that Bruce Ivins acted alone.

While defending the cost-cuting measures in the health reform bill, Budget Director Orszag and Health adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle slip in one whopper with cheese when describing the excise tax escalation rates.