Obama’s Budget Filled With Election Year Political Messages
Maybe y'all will appreciate this; sunk like a stone in GD.
Obama’s Budget Filled With Election Year Political Messages
By Zeke J Miller @zekejmiller
March 04, 20140
If budgets are political documents, President Barack Obama’s latest offering is something akin to a partisan opus.
snip//
The new budget, by contrast, is chock full of wedge issues designed to exploit the divide between Democrats and Republicans, and it has been released under Obama’s populist State of the Union theme “Opportunity for all,” which the president hopes to make a rallying cry for Democrats this year. It includes tax breaks for many low- and middle-income Americans paid for by the closing of loopholes used by the nation’s wealthiest and supported by many Republicans, including the carried interest exemption. It would also institute the so-called “Buffett Rule” by instituting a minimum tax rate of 30 percent on people earning more than $1 million a year, ensuring they pay an effective tax rate above those of middle-class Americans.
The budget also includes additional funding to improve background checks for gun purchases and money to help state and local police forces train for active shooter incidents in the wake of Sandy Hook. It adds $1 billion for a “Climate Resilience Fund” to help research and prepare for the effects of climate change. It would even increase federal defense spending by $28 billion over the caps set in the 2013 budget agreement.
Other proposals include a “race to the top”-style program to incentivize states and localities to embrace energy efficiency legislation. There’s additional funding for job training and infrastructure that Obama has long requested but has never been able to get through Congress, and a proposal to auto-enroll Americans in retirement savings accounts. The budget also restates Obama’s calls for existing priorities like continuing the Affordable Care Act and passing comprehensive immigration reform. It repeats his call from last year’s budget to extend pre-k education for more children, paid for partly by higher taxes on tobacco products.
The Democratic wish-list already has Republicans worried. Privately Republicans are pressing the House to avoid proceeding with a budget this year, as the Senate is doing, so as not to play into the White House’s hand. The proposals, meanwhile, are carefully calibrated to be individually popular, allowing Democrats with what to run on this fall, while the guaranteed dead-end ensures they won’t have to take a tough vote that Republicans could use to resurrect fiscal issues.
more...
http://swampland.time.com/2014/03/04/obama-budget-filled-with-political-messaging-2014/?iid=sl-main-lead
= new reply since forum marked as read
ODS 
Sad to see Democrats reduced to that. But that's about par for the course for those with, what is it called Tiger Beat syndrome who have such a small world it revolves around the politician and not the policies.
nowhere because it won't be passed, I know politics well enough to know the republicans will never pass it. But hey, go on ahead and claim it as a victory. Obviously you guys need every empty victory you can get and it's wonderful symbolism for those who aren't paying attention.
I will make no apologies for disturbing your small little world. Emphasis on "small little world" . I saw the post on the budget on the latest page and commented on the post. So whatever.
Block me from posting, I will be in good company.
no ... amazing, how many people post to a political message board posts that betray their stunning lack of politics and the functioning of government ... while complaining about politics.
"The President's budget proposal isn't going anywhere!" ... "They'll never vote for it!"
I guess no one every told them that the President's budget proposal is primarily a political document, signaling his policy direction; and, in this case, as in most cases ahead of mid-term elections, is a document that gives Democratic candidates (or republicans, when in the whitehouse) concrete issues to campaign on.
Oh ... But that's what the entire article (after the 2nd paragraph) was all about! 
