President Obama’s $4 trillion budget, after weeks of build-up, debuted Monday in what could best be described as Hillary Clinton’s warm-up act.
The promising economic signs this year and the freedom of never having to campaign again have given the president room to run.
Gone is the fiscal austerity of the past five years or any serious discussion of eventually balancing the budget, replaced with hundreds of billions in new spending on infrastructure projects, community college and early childhood education, as well as new taxes on the wealthy and businesses that move their operations overseas.
While Republicans proclaimed the budget dead on arrival, decrying its failure to rein in deficits, the plan seems to have something for everyone on the left.
“There is something in this budget for everyone in the Democratic coalition — both progressives and moderates — from the new fees on Wall Street firms, the estate tax hike and ignoring the sequester caps for the progressives to reassuring moderates that the deficit and debt would still come down as a percentage of GDP, defense gets an increase and infrastructure is still a priority,” said Erik Smith, founder of BlueEngineMedia, who has worked on Obama’s campaign messaging strategy. “The downside is that there is so much in here, it gives opponents a lot to complain about.”
More than anything, the initiatives and the “Middle-class Economics” talking points surrounding it appear squarely aimed at 2016.
Democrats deeply want to regain the Senate, and have a good as shot as ever with Republicans defending 24 seats. The middle-class message helps unify the Democratic economic agenda and sets the stage for a long national debate on the country’s growing income disparity.
“Middle-class stagnation and what to do about it is going to be a central issue in 2016,” said Will Marshall, a founder of the New Democrat centrist movement and president of the Progressive Policy Institute. “Everyone is going to be competing on credible ideas for growth and shared prosperity, and this [budget] is an effort to plant the flag on that.”
Hillary Clinton already gave her nod of support when Obama first previewed some of his budget moves in the State of the Union.
“@BarackObama #SOTU pointed way to an economy that works for all. Now we need to step up & deliver for the middle class. #FairShot #FairShare,” she tweeted.
Top White House counselor John Podesta will soon move over to Clinton’s campaign to become its general chairman, and the messaging appears seamless in the transition.
While Clinton continues to hold back before officially declaring her candidacy, she has benefited from Obama’s month-long budget roll-out and his middle-class messaging that got the conversation on wage stagnation rolling in Washington.
Obama’s liberal base, which Clinton must win over in the primary, has praised his bolder moves since the mid-term elections in which Republicans grabbed control of the Senate and strengthened its numbers in the House.
“It’s exciting to see President’s Obama’s White House finally putting forward the bold, populist progressive budget that our country needs to combat exploding income inequality,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, a liberal political action committee headquartered in Vermont.
Top GOP leaders and fiscal hawks are having a tough time squaring all the new taxes and spending with both Bill and Hillary Clinton’s reputations as common-sense centrists in their commitment to balancing the budget and reining in spending.
Republicans argue Hillary Clinton is quickly losing her fiscally-sensible street cred.
In offering and supporting a budget that “taxes more, spends more, and adds trillions of new debt,” Obama and Hillary Clinton are both playing politics and doubling down on the same “top-down approach that has left the middle-class behind,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.
But some Democrats concerned about tax reform and getting the country’s fiscal house in order, argue Obama had little choice, otherwise he would concede too much too early to Republicans.
Obama’s budget blueprint is just the first in a long, drawn-out debate with Republicans, they say.
“I would prefer that this budget would say more about a tax overhaul and constraining long-term spending growth, especially long-term entitlement growth,” Marshall said. “But that’s a tactical decision the president decided to make as a basis for bipartisan deal-making in the future.”
