President Obama’s 2013 budget was greeted on Monday with Republican catcalls that it is simply a campaign document, but election-year budgets are supposed to explain priorities to voters. This one offers a clear and welcome contrast to the slashing austerity – and protect-the-wealthy priorities – favored by Republican congressional leaders and the party’s presidential candidates. The president’s budget calls for long-term deficit reduction, but its immediate priority is to encourage the fledgling economic recovery. Instead of trying to stabilize the budget on the backs of the poor, it would raise taxes on the wealthy and on big banks and eliminate many corporate tax loopholes. If Congress were not dysfunctional – if it cared more about economic stabilization than scoring political points – it would sign on to a budget like this. – New York Times
There’s an old joke about putting money in your pocket with your left hand, removing it with your right and then counting the transaction as savings. That anecdote illustrates the fallacy of President Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget for 2013, which spends dollars the nation doesn’t have and glosses over the long-term impact of rising debt on the country’s economic health. Unfortunately, the president’s budget mostly points spending, taxes, entitlement programs and deficit reduction in the wrong direction. The most disappointing portion of the Obama budget is the lack of attention to reforming massive unsustainable entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. – Dallas Morning News
