At a certain level, it’s understandable to think the new White House budget plan is unimportant, or at a minimum, political theater. Given the far-right Republican majority in the House, there’s simply no way this budget will be approved by Congress, making the new White House document more of an opening bid than a realistic plan.
But don’t dismiss it too quickly. As a political document, President Obama’s budget tells us quite a bit about his priorities, his ideological goals, and what he intends to fight for, and in the process, it helps set the stage for the kind of fights we can expect to see over the next several months. Brian Beutler explained earlier:
Neither the GOP budget nor Obama’s counteroffer will — or are even intended to — become law. But they represent fresh bids in the ongoing fight between the parties over the scope of the safety net, and the question of whether the wealthiest people in the country contribute too much, or not enough, to the public purse.
The policies Obama will advocate are broadly popular; the GOP’s counter proposals are popular among their conservative supporters.
With that in mind, here are a handful of angles to keep an eye on as the budget fight unfolds in earnest:
* Domestic priorities: The White House budget intends to boost spending on “job-creation initiatives for infrastructure, job-training and innovation.”
* Taxes: Obama’s plan reflects the arguments the president has pushed for a long while, calling for “tax dividends of the wealthiest taxpayers as ordinary income subject to their top income-tax rate.” This idea alone, which Republicans hate with the heat of a thousand suns, would raise roughly $206 billion over 10 years.
* Oil companies: The oil and gas industries continue to enjoy generous taxpayer subsidies every year. The White House plan “would nix roughly $39 billion worth of tax breaks” over the next decade.









