Bob Shrum's newThe Week column nicely portrays how a Democratic stategist would like Obama's budget to be seen: a Rooseveltian, Reaganesque revolution in American politics that would establishes state control over the energy economy and politically irreversible new entitlements under the guise of “rights”:
Obama’s new America will be very American, a reach for enduring values of equality, opportunity and economic justice. But it will also be very different.
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The big change, however, is that America will not only move from laggard to leader on climate change, Obama is proposing to leave behind the entrenched carbon-based economy and rely on American ingenuity—yes, Newt, financed by your disdained public sector—to create a cleaner, more self-sufficient economy and the “green” jobs of the 21st Century.
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The 60 votes in the Senate will be found—or gotten around. And after 60 years of struggle, health care will finally be a right, not a privilege in America.
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The Pell Grant program, which offers scholarships to poor and middle class students, will no longer be an annual appropriation, subject to cuts; it will be an entitlement on the order of Social Security, with more than $5000 a year guaranteed to every eligible student. In all but name, this establishes a right to higher education.
So, to summarize, the pillars of the Obama revolution are: government control of the (green!) economy, socialized health care, and checks for young voters.
Will Wilkinson 