So I read this piece yesterday in which Digby discussed the notion that Rep. Paul Ryan's Crazy Roadmap to the Future is part of a larger design to make the Catfood Commission recommendations look reasonable:

If I were a conspiracy type, I might even think the catfood salesmen on the commission cooked this whole thing up sometime last December when it was obvious that the liberals weren't going to sign on. But I'm not a conspiracy type so I'd imagine that this is just something they all fortuitously and individually stumbled into on their way to a big donor meeting. There doesn't have to be a conspiracy --- it's just part of the culture. Look at how the Village greeted Ryan today. Cleopatra would be jealous.

Digby might think that's crazy talk, but I don't. That's why I posed that question to Nancy Pelosi on a blogger conference call she held today on the budget. I said that some of us were concerned that the administration was going to use the Ryan budget to make the deficit commission proposals look reasonable, and asked if she'd speak to that.

The response I got wasn't all that reassuring.

"If you subtract Social Security from it, [their proposals] to make it more solvent, that doesn't belong in any discussion about cutting the deficit," she said. "They shouldn't include policy decisions about Social Security. They don’t belong on the same table."

Once you subtract the Social Security proposals, "there are some good things in the deficit commission report."

She pointed out their recommendations include a "very big cut in defense" and in revenue earmarks. "There are features that are very good, not the full package," she said.

Then she said "ninety percent of our focus has to be putting the spotlight on the bad things in their budget."

I got the distinct impression I was being deflected.

I won't argue about the "good things" Leader Pelosi says are left in the deficit commission chairmans proposal after we remove the cuts to Social Security.

There are, indeed, what appears to be some good, practical proposals. But Republicans aren't going to vote for the sensible ideas on their merits. They'll hold them hostage until they also get their wacky right-wing proposals adopted.

And can we drop the political game pieces and get back to reality? Republicans don't care about the deficit. Repeat after me: Republicans don't care about the deficit. Did you hear a peep out of them during the Bush years? Of course not. Because Republicans don't care about the deficit.

This is the same game they've been playing for decades. It's just that this time, they've got the Democrats running the ball for them. In soccer, they call that an "own goal".