Obama's Budget Speech

Andrew Sullivan collects reactions to the President's budget speech on The Daily Dish.

Ezra Klein:

My initial impression is that this looks a lot like the Simpson-Bowles report, but in a good way. It doesn’t go quite as far on defense cuts, but it also doesn’t implement a cap on tax or spending. It goes a lot further than Ryan’s budget does in terms of actually figuring out ways to save money rather than just using caps to shift costs onto states/beneficiaries.

Jonathan Cohn:

The new health care reforms look very good upon initial inspection--and, particularly when added to cost controls already in the Affordable Care Act, this is far more serious than what Paul Ryan and the Republicans have in mind. And if Obama is more serious about controlling health care costs, then he's more serious about reducing deficits overall.

David Frum:

That speech was not so especially eloquent. It was, however, very effective. It frames the debate in a way that is maximally useful for Democrats. This framing was made possible by the efforts of Republicans themselves, blinded by their own hopes, misdirected by their own messaging.

I agree that this was a very effective political speech that likely accomplished its aim which appears to be a framing of the coming debate on deficit reduction. Obama hews fairly closely to the conviction of mainstream economists (Simpson-Bowles recommendations are a specific example) that any serious deficit reduction plan must contain three elements:

1) Reform of entitlements (Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security)
2) Defense spending cuts
3) Increase federal revenue (either with tax increases or cuts in tax breaks)

He rightly criticizes the Ryan plan for ignoring number two while actually doing the opposite on number three by cutting federal revenue with further tax cuts for the wealthy.

Let the debate begin.

--Ballard Burgher