Obama Introduces Win-Win-Win Budgeting

[babylonsister]

Obama Introduces Win-Win-Win Budgeting


The Times reports today that Obama and budget director Peter Orszag are experimenting with something fairly new in preparing their budget: honesty.

For his first annual budget next week, President Obama has banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller. The price of more honest bookkeeping: A budget that is $2.7 trillion deeper in the red over the next decade than it would otherwise appear, according to administration officials.

The new accounting involves spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Medicare reimbursements to physicians and the cost of disaster responses.

But the biggest adjustment will deal with revenues from the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax system enacted in 1969 to prevent the wealthy from using tax shelters to avoid paying any income tax.

It's tough to overstate how smart a move this is. For one thing, it's kinda helpful to have a budget that actually means something when you're debating public policy, so the substantive merits speak for themselves. But the politics of this are also inspired. Why not make the long-term deficit look as large as possible at the beginning of your term? Not only can you fairly blame your predecessor at that point; the bigger the deficit looks, the easier it is to show progress, which Obama will need to do as he runs for re-election. To take one example, you can't claim savings from drawing down in Iraq if you don't put Iraq spending on the budget in the first place (which Bush mostly didn't).

On top of which, everyone will rightly applaud your honesty and transparency, as I'm doing here. It's as close to a no-brainer as you get in politics, which is why it's utterly mystifying that so few presidents have done it.

more...

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/02/20/obama-introduces-win-win-win-budgeting.aspx

[Cha]

1. There's less to remember

when you don't try and trick anyone..and I wouldn't expect any other way from TeamObama.

[EraOfResponsibility]

2. Awesome..n/m

[Kdillard]

3. This is very heartening to hear. We finally have someone responsible in charge of

the Nations budget.

[democracy1st]

4. K & R

[vaberella]

5. It's like every other minute is good when it's O. It's like when Palin started opening her mouth.

Just an ongoing good time. n/t

[bvar22]

6. OTOH,

it is good strategy to scare the devil out of everyone right before you "reform entitlements" (MediCare/Social Security).

Isn't that next on the list?

[FrenchieCat]

12. In your mind, perhaps.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8206100

[bvar22]

14. "Fiscal Responsibility Summit - Feb.23

Guess you haven't seen this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5105506

And, of course, you haven't heard any of the Obama administration foreshadow "Entitlement Reform".

[dansolo]

7. Obama should recalculate the deficits from 2001-2008

The Republicans will unfairly attack him for his budget numbers, so he should show what Bush's deficits really were.

[SoCalDem]

8. It's a brilliant pre-emptive tactic for '12

Had he NOT done this, the republicans WOULD have ...just in time for the '12 election..they would have done it to MINIMIZE any success he would have had, and to pin Bush's screwups on HIM..

By doing this NOW...one month into his admin, he has dragged ourt all the smelly laundry, for all to see..and it's all mongrammed with the initials G.W.B.

This lets Obama start out at square ONE, and has it all in print and in public...so no one can dare "use it against" him in four years..

The man is a chess player:)

[4lbs]

9. This is very smart of him.

Here's why.

By stopping the use of those accounting gimmicks, the true higher deficit will be shown.

That will give him even more perceived authority and impetus to ask for an increase in taxes on the wealthy to help bring the deficit down.

While the current plan is to simply let those Bush tax cuts expire in 2011, when Congress and the country see just how much more the deficit really is, he then says "we'll need to rescind those Bush tax cuts sooner than later" with lots of support.

The Republicans will be in a bind.

If they oppose rescinding those Bush tax cuts soon, they'll lose any ability to call themselves "fiscal conservatives" because they allowed the deficit to stay so high when the President wanted to bring it down.

If they agree to getting rid of the Bush tax cuts soon, they'll anger part of their base and splinter the party even further.

[uponit7771]

10. Then Obama becomes ANOTHER dem president who paid down the deficit and the debt

[Fearless]

11. A fact that falls on the deaf ears of a little less than half this nation.

[fadedrose]

13. This is a wonderful thing to do..

As far as Medicare goes, I don't understand something, probably obvious to everyone but me, but the usage of the word "reimbursements" to physicians confuses me. I would have thought "payments" to physicians was the right word. What don't I know here?

Thanks for posting this...