Obama Budget: New Tactics

To pass the stimulus bill, Obama built in ample tax cuts to please Republican lawmakers who ended up snubbing him. You think he learned his lesson? Witness the new $3.55 trillion budget -- it is massive, it excavates new terrain to enable the shifts in health care and renewable energy that Obama was elected for, it piles on new debt on top of old debt that we will have to deal with shortly, and it will jump start the economy with a blizzard of spending. Republicans and Democrats will battle Obama to snip and cut it down to a size that Obama wanted anyway. This time Obama built in enough slack to give everyone room to cut, while still maintaining a large enough bill to enable the reforms he feels are crucial to America's future.