Just a Prelude to the Real Fight, Robert Hiltonsmith writes at The American Prospect. What Republicans really want to cut is Social Security and Medicare, he writes. "Conservatives have always used misguided public fear about the size of the national deficit as an excuse to target government programs they hate -- and score political points." Hiltonsmith says the GOP will look to recommendations made by President Obama's deficit commission, led by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, which would cut entitlement programs significantly. "So, as the current budget skirmish is resolved and the real battle is joined, don't be surprised to see the GOP resurrect the Bowles-Simpson recommendations when they offer their budget in the spring. And if they do, we should be just as wary of them as we were the first time around."
