Stan Collender: Obama Budget Plan: Changing The Debate Without Changing The Likely Outcome
Stan Collender:
Obama Budget Plan: Changing The Debate Without Changing The Likely Outcome: As the very quick negative response yesterday from the House GOP showed, the White House was never going to get even a reluctant, grudging admission from the Republicans that the Obama administration did something even marginally positive on the budget when it announced it's new deficit reduction plan. After beginning their complaints on February 14th -- the day the Obama 2012 budget was sent to Congress -- that the White House wasn't leading on fiscal issues, there was no expectation that House Republicans would do anything but drop the "refuses to lead" line and instead start using "we don't like what he's proposing" mantra....
[W]ho or what was the real target? The answer is independents, the increasingly large percentage of American voters who don't identify with either political party and the group that made the difference in the 2008 and 2010 elections.... [A]s yesterday's almost instantaneous and totally negative Republican response demonstrated, once the "we-have-a-plan-and-he-doesn't" charge was muted, the budget debate almost immediately retrogressed to the same issues that have made it almost impossible for any deficit reduction plan to be considered seriously in recent years....
[T]he plan offered a process by which negotiations could begin. The president offered himself as a facilitator, convener, and expediter and, given the independents' past dislike of how the sausage typically is made in Washington, this likely will appeal to them.... Significantly heightened approval by the independents could spur the GOP to come to the bargaining table...
