Obama Budget Proposal, Spine Needed

[White Haven]

Obama budget plan to tax the rich

US President Barack Obama will seek to raise taxes on the wealthy as he unveils his budget later, prompting an election year spending showdown with Republicans.
The proposal includes $1.5 trillion (£950bn) in new taxes, much from allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire.
He will also call for a Buffett Plan tax hike on millionaires, and infrastructure projects.
The budget must be agreed between the White House and Congress.
Mr Obama will address students at a college in Virginia on Monday morning as he outlines his 2013 spending proposal to Congress.

Dead on arrival?

The BBC's Steve Kingstone says the budget will offer a clear contrast between Mr Obama's vision and that of Republicans.
At its core will be the idea that the wealthiest Americans should pay more in tax and that, in the short-term, a chunk of that extra revenue should be spent on job creation, manufacturing and upgrading the nation's schools.
But Republican leaders, who portray Mr Obama as a tax-and-spend liberal stoking class warfare, have already pronounced the budget dead on arrival.
Mr Obama's plan to allow George W Bush-era tax cuts to expire would affect families making $250,000 or more per year.
The president would also put in place a rule named after billionaire Warren Buffett to tax households making more than $1m annually at a rate of at least 30%.
In a populist touch, over the next decade, the plan would levy a new $61bn tax on financial institutions, in an effort to recover the costs of the financial bailout. And it would raise a further $41bn by cutting tax breaks for oil, gas and coal companies.
Republicans have been railing against the budget, which would entail a fourth year in a row of trillion-dollar-plus deficits.
The spending plan, which would take effect on 1 October, projects a deficit for this year of $1.33 trillion, with the amount shrinking to $901bn by 2013 and $575bn in 2018.
Mr Obama will also propose more than $100bn in investments for transportation projects, revamps for tens of thousands of schools and for the hiring of teachers and emergency service workers.
The plan would seek to defer major spending cuts until the economy is on a more steady footing, a priority as Mr Obama seeks re-election in November.
"I think there is pretty broad agreement that the time for austerity is not today," new White House chief of staff Jack Lew told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.

Huh. If this were a finished product, I'd be at least mildly pleasantly surprised. Odds on enough of a collective democratic spine manifesting to keep the taxes in some recognizable form: negligible, I expect.

[Mr Bean]

This budget needs going over but the main problem is that it will never... ever... pass. Until the Republicans gain control of the Senate or lose control of the House we are going to be on continuing resolutions indefinitely. We've gone two full years without passing a budget, we are into our third.

[Baffalo]

The infrastructure of the US is failing in spectacular ways, so the plan gets a vote in my book for the infrastructure overhaul. The schools could use an upgrade as well, which will help in the long-run. However, Republicans are dead set against anything coming out of the White House and will fight it tooth and nail.