I'm not precisely sure what the news is in this Politico piece arguing that the White House means to align its messaging capabilities and grassroots advocates in service of the President's agenda. They've got a petition seems strangely lame given the hubbub. But as I was on MSNBC this weekend to talk about it and as I just did a BloggingHeads on it, it appears to be being treated as news. So! One of the things that's confusing people is that this is a surprising level of political activation in service of a budget. If this were health reform, or cap and trade, or education reform, then sure, send out the troops and staff up the war room. That would be expected. But a budget? But this isn't a budget. At least not in the sense that a budget simply pays for the continued operation of the federal government. Embedded in this budget is a large slice of the new funding and more than a few of the policy pieces for Obama's health reform, cap and trade, tax, and education initiatives. If the budget passes, then that's one step towards passing major, politically transformative, accomplishments. If it fails, it's a huge defeat. The word "budget" undersells the new policies contained in the (eventual) legislation.There's precedent for this: Bill Clinton had a huge fight over his first budget, which famously passed without a single Republican vote. The reason? It sharply raised taxes on income, Social Security, and even fuel. In doing, it laid the groundwork for his greatest accomplishments: Lowering interest rates and balancing the budget. So it, similarly, caused a huge fight. But the fight, then and now, isn't over the part of the legislation we think of as "the budget." It's over the parts that we'd normally understand as the President's agenda. WHEN A BUDGET IS MORE THAN A BUDGET.
I'm not precisely sure what the news is in this Politico piece arguing that the White House means to align its messaging capabilities and grassroots advocates in service of the President's agenda. They've got a petition seems strangely lame given the hubbub. But as I was on MSNBC this weekend to talk about it and as I just did a BloggingHeads on it, it appears to be being treated as news. So! One of the things that's confusing people is that this is a surprising level of political activation in service of a budget. If this were health reform, or cap and trade, or education reform, then sure, send out the troops and staff up the war room. That would be expected. But a budget? But this isn't a budget. At least not in the sense that a budget simply pays for the continued operation of the federal government. Embedded in this budget is a large slice of the new funding and more than a few of the policy pieces for Obama's health reform, cap and trade, tax, and education initiatives. If the budget passes, then that's one step towards passing major, politically transformative, accomplishments. If it fails, it's a huge defeat. The word "budget" undersells the new policies contained in the (eventual) legislation.There's precedent for this: Bill Clinton had a huge fight over his first budget, which famously passed without a single Republican vote. The reason? It sharply raised taxes on income, Social Security, and even fuel. In doing, it laid the groundwork for his greatest accomplishments: Lowering interest rates and balancing the budget. So it, similarly, caused a huge fight. But the fight, then and now, isn't over the part of the legislation we think of as "the budget." It's over the parts that we'd normally understand as the President's agenda. 
