President Obama announced he would cut more than two trillion dollars from the budget, while getting essentially nothing in return. The moment the news broke, Jon Carson, the Office of Public Engagement’s executive director, called a meeting in one of the EEOB’s handsomely decorated conference rooms. Ensconced in leather chairs, surrounded by portraits of severe-looking dead white men, we went over our talking points. Most of the cuts weren’t immediate. Most social safety-net programs had been spared. But was I wrong to think the stern, pasty faces on the walls looked skeptical? As hard as we
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