Budget proposal continues Obama's new populist approach
The budget plan President Obama will formally release on Monday continues his confrontational approach with congressional Republicans after spending 2011 trying to reach compromises with the opposition party.
President Obama formally unveiled his budget plan in a speech Monday, offering a mix of “stimulus” style spending and tax increases on the wealthy that Republicans are likely to oppose.
The non-binding proposal, which is unlikely to be even voted on by Congress, is largely a symbolic document that illustrates a president’s vision for the country. (Congress will write a series of bills later in the year that Obama must then approve which actually fund the government)
Obama’s budget proposal calls for $350 billion in spending in 2012 to keep the job growth of the last several months continuing. He would spend $50 billion on hiring people to work on roads, rails and highways, $30 billion to help states pay for teachers and firefighters, and another $30 billion to hire employees to fix old school buildings.
The president would also extend a payroll tax cut that benefits millions of American families and continue to fund expanded unemployment benefits.
“We’ve got to do everything in our power to keep the recovery on track,” he said at a community college in Northern Virginia, unveiling the proposals.
At the same time, the budget freezes spending in many areas of the budget, as the president is also trying to reduce the deficit. That has drawn criticism from some liberals, including Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (Missouri.) In an interview on CNN on Monday morning, he described Obama’s budget as a “nervous breakdown on paper.”
Republicans are casting the proposals as a repeat of the 2009 “stimulus,” which they sharply opposed.
And Obama will call for increasing taxes on families that make more than $250,000 a year and requiring all millionaires to pay least 30 percent of their income in taxes, both ideas Republicans also are very unlikely to support.
The budget, and its sharp differences with the Republicans, is the latest illustration of Obama’s shift in posture with the GOP. Since last fall, the president has sought to highlight his differences with the congressional Republicans, repeatedly proposing tax increases on the wealthy while avoiding proposals that would divide his own party.
He has blasted Republicans for stalling ideas such extending a reduction in the payroll tax.
Obama’s budget ideas also differ from the Republicans running to get his job. Newt Gingrich,Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum all oppose the tax hikes Obama is proposing, as well as his emphasis on more infrastructure spending.
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