Beware The Spin As The President’s Budget Is Released

ABC News posted a story yesterday about a statement made by White House chief of staff Jack Lew on CNN regarding President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal. Mr. Lew stated, “You can’t pass a budget in the Senate of the United States without 60 votes and you can’t get 60 votes without bipartisan supports. So unless… unless Republicans are willing to work with Democrats in the Senate, [Majority Leader] Harry Reid is not going to be able to get a budget passed.”

That statement is simply not true. Budgets require 51 votes for passage in the Senate. The other thing that needs to be mentioned here is that President Obama’s 2011 Budget was voted on in May and defeated 97-0. I don’t think the problem was the Republicans–the problem was the budget proposal!

The article reports the spin (and then continues the spin):

White House officials did not dispute that Lew misspoke. When asked about the discrepancy, a White House official said “the chief of staff was clearly referencing the general gridlock in Congress that makes accomplishing even the most basic tasks nearly impossible given the Senate Republicans’ insistence on blocking an up or down vote on nearly every issue.”

The issue highlights the difficulty the White House is having running against an obstructionist Congress when half of that Congress is controlled by Democrats, who obstruct things for their own reasons. In this case, political observers believe Reid is reluctant to have Democrats vote on a large budget full of deficits and tax increases that Republicans can use to run against them.

Although I commend Mr. Tapper on pointing out that what Mr. Lew said was not true, I disagree with him on the characterization of Congress as obstructionist. Not every bill that goes to Congress should be passed. How come Congress is only obstructionist when it stands in the way of what Democrats want to do?

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