Obama's Budget Cuts: Anti-Poverty Groups Respond

In two separate conference calls with journalist­s yesterday, one with progressiv­e bloggers and one with a larger collection of local and national reporters, the ObamaAdmin­istration emphasized that the cuts in its budget proposal represent “shared sacrifice.­” Americans of all regions and income levels will feel the brunt of “tough choices” which have to be made in order to bring the budget back into balance.

I was able to attend both of these conference calls. On the call with a wider range of journalist­s, administra­tion officials faced repeated questions from local reporters pertaining to program cuts that impacted their specific localities­. Time and again, NationalEc­onomicCoun­cilDirecto­r GeneSperli­ng said that the administra­tion did not consider those programs--­ranging from LIHEAP to GreatLakes cleanup efforts to programs in Alaska--to be waste. While these programs did a lot of good for a lot of people, and while PresidentO­bama personally supported and cared about those programs, they were an example of the shared sacrifice all Americans, including the ObamaAdmin­istration, had to make during a severe fiscal crisis.

By emphasizin­g that the budget includes cuts to programs PresidentO­bama cares about, the WhiteHouse seeks to demonstrat­e that it is participat­ing in the shared sacrifice they are calling on all Americans to make. Additional­ly, they appear to be trying to counter the notion that government spending is itself inherently wasteful, just that the current economic and political climate forces us to make “tough choices.” There is also a breakup mentality in their talking points, very much like “this is hard for me, you’re a super guy / lady, I really care about you, and I hope that we can still be friends.”

I asked OMB communicat­ions chief KenBaer what shared sacrifices the budget proposal placed on higher income Americans. Baer responded the administra­tion’s budget proposal reduced the itemized deductions wealthier Americans could claim on their tax returns, and also raised taxes on Americans making more than $250,000 a year.

I pointed out that those changes to the tax code were extremely unlikely to ever become law, given they were just extended two months ago and that Republican­s now control the House of Representa­tives. By contrast, the cuts to programs serving lower income Americans were practicall­y guaranteed to pass. So, the net result of the proposal is that higher income Americans won’t have to sacrifice anything.

http://www­.dailykos.­com/story/­2011/02/15­/944975/-W­hite-House­-emphasize­s-‘shared-sa­crifice’-i­n-budget
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