Can the White House tackle the deficit?

By Ezra Klein
WashPost

When it comes to the budget, no two people in town know more than Bob Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. And yet, Monday, they disagreed. "Does not go nearly far enough," MacGuineas said of President Obama's budget. "An important step toward addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal challenge," Greenstein concluded.

But perhaps they're more in sync than they know. I spoke with both today, and they agreed on quite a bit: That this budget, on its own, does not come near to solving our fiscal problems; that more needs to be done, and we're better off doing it sooner than later; that the real question is what happens in the coming negotiations, not what was written into the budget. "What we don't know," MacGuineas says, "is what's happening behind the scenes."

The Obama administration's theory of policymaking amid divided government is a frustrating one. What most people want from the president is to lead. And leading, in this case, means giving a speech, getting behind some unpopular ideas, trying to change public opinion. It means acting like Jed Bartlet in the final five minutes of an episode of "The West Wing." "What are the next 10 words in your budget?" Obama is supposed to ask the Republicans after delivering his bout of tough fiscal medicine. "Your taxes are too high? So are mine. Give me the next 10 words. How are we going to do it? Give me 10 after that, I'll drop out of the race right now."

But the White House has come to the conclusion that that type of leadership doesn't work. It believes that the quickest way to kill a controversial proposal in a polarized political system is to have the president endorse it. Once a high-profile proposal is associated with the White House, Republicans (correctly) view its passage as a threat to their political fortunes. That's why the Obama administration didn't endorse a payroll tax holiday until after the election, when it emerged as part of the tax deal. Endorsing it before the election would've "poisoned the well," one administration official told me after. Republicans would have had to attack it, and that would have made it impossible for them to endorse it later.

(More here.)

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