Seven things you absolutely need to know about Obama’s budget

[ProSense]

Seven things you absolutely need to know about Obama’s budget

By Christopher Ingraham

The White House released its budget plan this morning. It's a long, dense document full of charts and tables that describe President Obama's spending and tax proposals for the next year. Here are two things you absolutely need to know about it.

1. Think of this budget as more of a wish list.
   Presidential budgets are political documents. There’s little chance that Congress will approve any of these measures during a contentious mid-term election year. Moreover, spending levels for fiscal 2015 are already set, and House Republicans are already drafting a budget that ignores many of Obama’s funding requests. For more on why this budget matters even less than usual, read Lori Montgomery’s take.
   
   
2. The budget looks to reduce debt primarily by raising revenue.
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3. Projections aside, only one date matters: Nov. 4, 2014
   The budget projects deficits and expenditures out to 2024, but in reality the White House is focused on the mid-term elections this year. The budget is chock-full of populist ideas intended to motivate the Democratic base and provide a policy blueprint for Democratic candidates going into November.
   
   
4. The budget follows a traditional liberal economic playbook: Higher taxes, higher spending
   Obama proposes more than $1 trillion in new taxes to slow borrowing over the next decade – with much of the burden falling on major businesses and the wealth. That would make it easier to restore spending to many domestic programs -- which are in line for deep cuts after 2015 -- and invest in new areas.
   
   
5. The plan revisits many policy proposals from years prior
   Among them: Raise tobacco taxes to pay for universal pre-K. Impose a "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee" on big banks. Overhaul the nation's immigration laws, which would produce a $158 billion windfall for the Treasury. Even the president's deficit-reduction ideas have been offered before, from limiting itemized deductions for the rich to forcing drug companies to offer big rebates on Medicare prescriptions.
   
   - more -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/04/seven-things-you-absolutely-need-to-know-about-obamas-budget/

[duhneece]

1. How is this the same, how is this different from FDR's?

I'm a bit uninformed to say the least.