Mayor Paul Ryan

After the election is over, this is going to be one heck of a budget fight.  Today the mayor borrowed a slogan from the mid 1990s in order to roll out his own Clintonesque strategy of implementing the draconian austerity measures advocated by conservatives while falsely presenting them as a  "progressive" alternative.

Landrieu: "This is what progress looks like. We're reinventing New Orleans government." #nolabudget
— Gambit (@The_Gambit) October 29, 2012

On the one hand he tells us,

Landrieu blasted Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration for recent state cuts, specifically to the DA's office, the indigent defender's office and the mental health system.

"The state is not meeting its obligations," he said. "This path of austerity on the state level will not lead us to success."

And yet in practically the same breath, his budget proposal raises utility rates, attacks pensions, and threatens layoffs. If you're going to speak out against "austerity" your argument is weakened if you aren't ready to offer an alternative program.

In the 90s,  a reactionary Republican wave election brought us the Gingrich House of Representatives.  But it was Bill Clinton who implemented welfare reform and the "reinventing government" cutbacks.  It's always the so-called "progressive" who ends up doing the actual dirty work.