Can Obama cut the budget and keep Democrats happy?

By Dan Balz,
WashPost
Saturday, April 9, 8:37 PM

In his first two years, President Obama pursued an agenda that dramatically increased government spending and ushered in the biggest change in social welfare policy since the Great Society. When he spoke to the country late Friday night, he sounded like a born-again budget cutter.


Americans may ask which is the real Obama, the politician who embraced the biggest stimulus package in the nation’s history, a bailout of the banks and a takeover of the automobile industry, or the one who on Friday hailed the new budget deal as including “the largest annual spending cut in our history.”

Nervous Democrats fear that Obama gave away too much in the last-minute agreement that averted a government shutdown. They worry even more about the coming fights over raising the debt ceiling and particularly Obama’s response to the budgetary blueprint outlined last week by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.).

That response will come soon, perhaps as early as this week. White House officials see the debate over Ryan’s budget plan, which calls for deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, as far different from the one that ended Friday night.

(More here.)