Republicans cool to Obama’s budget proposal
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Republicans reacted coolly to President Obama’s proposed $3.8-trillion budget, raising questions over whether the hoped-for era of bipartisanship had crashed even before it got off the ground.
In his budget proposal released Monday, Obama called for more taxes on the rich, fees on financial institutions and a three-year freeze on discretionary spending that covers about 17% of the proposed budget.
“Just days ago, the president met with House Republicans and stressed the need to work together on fiscally responsible policy, and though we are ready to heed the president’s call, the budget proposal his administration offered today does not fit that criteria,” Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said in a prepared statement.
“The president’s budget spends more than any other in history, creates the largest deficits in history and imposes the largest tax increases in history -- at a time when our country can least afford it,” Cantor said.
One of Republicans’ loudest complaints is that the size of Democratic majorities in both chambers means that they have been effectively shut out of the legislative process -- which has some political advantage. It allows them, as Cantor put it, to “stand ready to get to work on efforts to stop out-of-control Washington spending” at a time when anti-incumbency feelings around the country are rising.
Obama warned that he wanted bipartisanship, but a special kind.
“I welcome any idea, from Democrats and Republicans,” the president said in televised remarks from the White House. “What I will not welcome -- what I reject -- is the same old grandstanding when the cameras are on, and the same irresponsible budget policies when the cameras are off.”
Now that the budget has been formally proposed, it heads to Congress, which will get a chance to rework it to fit in with local concerns. For example, expect some in Congress, on both sides of the aisle, to fight to increase the defense and NASA budgets with projects that benefit their districts.
In that sense, bipartisanship is just beginning.
-- Michael Muskal
