"It does not have, in the sense of a traditional budget, numbers..."
by dday
The President and his team walked into the worst economic crisis in decades, beset on all sides by naysayers and unhelpful ConservaDems looking to frustrate their agenda, and with the populist anger over the AIG bonuses and a perceived coziness with Wall Street, the pitfalls are large and ominous. A smart political opposition could take this environment and turn it to their advantage.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, we don't have one of those. We have one actual political party and a conservative know-nothing rump faction which literally has absolutely no ideas about how to capitalize on this political moment. They released a budget plan today without numbers. No, really.
There certainly was no hard budgetary data in the attractively designed 18-page packet that the House GOP handed out today, its blue cover emblazoned with an ambitious title: "The Republican Road to Recovery." When Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) was asked what his goal for deficit reduction would be -- President Obama aims to halve the nation's spending imbalance within five years -- Boehner responded simply: "To do better [than Obama]."
When pressed further by reporters, Boehner promised that Republicans would release their actual budget within the next few days and pointed a finger back at the president.
If you really hate yourself, you can read this hash of a plan. Ezra Klein has the best line:
It's reads like what would happen if The Onion put together a budget. "Area Man Releases Proposal for 2010 Federal Spending Priorities."
Maybe there's a real opportunity for the Green Party once the Republicans truly sink into utter irrelevance?