The Beltway’s Favorite Tax Metaphor (Massive Media Joke Calling Obama the “Adult” in Debt Talks)

In a Washington deadlocked over taxes and spending, there is nothing more cherished than its favorite metaphor—and nothing more revealing about the way our Beltway establishment thinks.

Look at the ongoing negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. Almost from the beginning, President Obama has been described as being, or hoping to position himself as, “the adult in the room.” This has become the received metaphor, operating as a sort of Gresham’s law of political dialogue: Once introduced, it drives out most any other possible language.

Here are just a handful of examples from the past few weeks:

“Leading off: The adult in the room? That’s how President Obama is trying to portray himself, the calm daddy trying to discipline the group of unruly children on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue.” (Chuck Todd, “Hardball”). “[I]f you are playing the responsible adult in the room and the other guy is willing to blow up the room if he doesn’t get exactly what he wants, that puts you in a bad negotiating position” (Paul Krugman, “This Week with Christiane Amanpour“). “At his press conference on June 29, [President Obama] threatened to cancel lawmakers’ recess until an agreement was reached. As before, Obama cast himself as the adult in the room” (Politico).

There’s more. “Heading into Monday’s meeting, Obama tried yet again to elevate himself above

via The Beltway’s Favorite Tax Metaphor (Massive Media Joke Calling Obama the “Adult” in Debt Talks).

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