Into the Valley of Death rode 'The One', armed only with a budget
Obama’s Progressive Budget
Bill Keller, NYT
The first thing to be said about the budget President Obama delivered this week is that, at last, he has one. Until now his answer to the brutal specifics of the Republicans’ law-of-the-jungle budget has been a slogan – “a balanced approach.” Now he has provided (mostly) hard, credible numbers to show what he means by that slogan. I wish he’d produced such a document a year ago and campaigned on it, which would strengthen his claim to a popular mandate. But give the guy credit. It was time to put up or shut up, and he put up.
The second thing to say is that it IS a balanced approach – not in the sense that we now hear outcries from some voices on the left added to the ceaseless racket on the right. (The fact that you are being attacked from both sides does not necessarily prove you are right.) It is balanced in the sense that – unlike the Republican version, which is a radical bet on austerity and the mercies of the ungoverned marketplace – it harmonizes short-term needs and long-term responsibilities. It is balanced in the sense that it is not an opening bid – so the White House insists, and I hope they mean it – but a genuine attempt to reconcile rival interests in the national interest.
The third thing to say is that, although it contains some compromises, it should not be dismissed by liberals as a “centrist budget.” It is a progressive budget. (For a thoughtful, progressive take on it, see Robert Greenstein’s analysis at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website.) It is a budget that, if enacted, would pump money now into job creation, would stabilize the long-term deficit problem, would help alleviate the growing inequality in the country, would make some important investments in our future (including a universal pre-K program), would pocket some savings from the Pentagon (not yet enough, as Fred Kaplan rightly complains on Slate) and, finally, would face up to the crisis in entitlements before it becomes truly alarming.
(More here.)
Bill Keller, NYT
The first thing to be said about the budget President Obama delivered this week is that, at last, he has one. Until now his answer to the brutal specifics of the Republicans’ law-of-the-jungle budget has been a slogan – “a balanced approach.” Now he has provided (mostly) hard, credible numbers to show what he means by that slogan. I wish he’d produced such a document a year ago and campaigned on it, which would strengthen his claim to a popular mandate. But give the guy credit. It was time to put up or shut up, and he put up.
The second thing to say is that it IS a balanced approach – not in the sense that we now hear outcries from some voices on the left added to the ceaseless racket on the right. (The fact that you are being attacked from both sides does not necessarily prove you are right.) It is balanced in the sense that – unlike the Republican version, which is a radical bet on austerity and the mercies of the ungoverned marketplace – it harmonizes short-term needs and long-term responsibilities. It is balanced in the sense that it is not an opening bid – so the White House insists, and I hope they mean it – but a genuine attempt to reconcile rival interests in the national interest.
The third thing to say is that, although it contains some compromises, it should not be dismissed by liberals as a “centrist budget.” It is a progressive budget. (For a thoughtful, progressive take on it, see Robert Greenstein’s analysis at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website.) It is a budget that, if enacted, would pump money now into job creation, would stabilize the long-term deficit problem, would help alleviate the growing inequality in the country, would make some important investments in our future (including a universal pre-K program), would pocket some savings from the Pentagon (not yet enough, as Fred Kaplan rightly complains on Slate) and, finally, would face up to the crisis in entitlements before it becomes truly alarming.
(More here.)
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