Transcript
12:30 [Comment From Laurie]
The pundits are all calling Obama’s budget ambitious, and everyone seemed surprised by the scope of the numbers and the ambitious nature of the programs. What’s your overall reaction to the budget?
12:30 Barry Bosworth:
It is very ambitious, but it is common to propose a large number of programs in the first year of the new administration, but they are not going to be completed except over several years.
12:31 Barry Bosworth:
While Obama discussed them in the election campaign, they are not issues on which there is any kind of consensus on the precise means of addressing them, so the President needs to start the conversation. It will lead to more detailed proposals, congressional hearings and debate; but enactment will absorb much of his term.
12:31 Barry Bosworth:
As we have learned form the unfortunate delays with the stimulus program, nothing happens quickly. For the short run, attention will be concentrated to the economy, which is still spiraling down into a deep recession. Until that is fixed, we will not know how much we will have in the way of resources to addresses issues like, health, education and climate change. It is hard to make detailed budget plans in the midst of an economic disaster with falling incomes and rising unemployment.
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