STOP - before we begin let me say I am just asking the question, folks. I am looking for the discussion. Do NOT go all Alan West on me.
As much as I hate to admit it the administration's assertion that dealing with the debt situation now will allow them to move on to other things makes sense to me. The republicans don't want to be talking about debt and deficits now, they want to be talking about it on election day. That's part of the reason republicans shied away from Obama's deepest cuts - so they'd still have some ammunition on election day.
The people who voted republican in 2010 got all their info on debt, austerity, and unemployment from the right. Enacting the right's deep cuts now will give the country 18 months to realize first-hand that the right's claims about spending cuts and austerity are bunk. In other words, it will do what the Democrats failed to do during the mid-terms. As the right's austerity programs inevitably fail Democrats could point to them in the run-up to 2012 as proof that another way is needed.
I don't want to see these cuts either but we lost that argument by refusing to fight. I wish Democrats were better politicians but these days they seem to do best by keeping their heads down and waiting for republicans to self-destruct once they're in power. It's rather sad but it does have a proven track record. Anyway, it's just a thought - don't read too much into it.