Washington, D.C. — Michael Linden, Director for Tax and Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress, had the following reaction to the fiscal year 2013 budget plan President Barack Obama unveiled today:
President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 sets a responsible course for rebuilding the economy so that it works for everyone, not just the privileged few. Our middle class is the engine of economic growth but is threatened by dwindling public investments, a tax system increasingly rigged to benefit the wealthy, a fraying safety net, and assaults on what should be the bedrock guarantees of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
The president’s budget protects those guarantees, boosts critical investments, and takes steps toward rebalancing the tax code so that all pay their fair share. And it does this in a fiscally responsible way, charting a path that nurtures the economic recovery while reducing the federal deficit, all without asking the middle class to shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden.
Strengthen our middle class. Protect our economic recovery. Chart a course for responsible, balanced federal deficit reduction. These should be the goals of any economic plan. Fortunately President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal largely succeeds at meeting all three.
The FY 2013 budget proposal released today is unlikely to get much traction in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives this election year but that doesn’t invalidate the many good ideas in it or the overall positive direction it outlines. Given our nation’s current circumstances—constrained by a difficult budget environment and in the midst of a fragile recovery from the worst economic downturn in generations—President Obama’s plan for the fiscal year beginning in October has much to recommend it.
Read more from CAP on the president’s 2013 spending plan:
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