Just to first clarify the "Fuzzy Monday" reference: it's a band name I proposed to David Hill. He then criticized the lovey dovey nature of modern indie music in a nice high-pitched singing style rant, and promptly turned down my idea. Then attended an Avett Brothers concert this weekend.....
So, onto the budget. I found an article outlining, agency-by-agency, the budget proposed by the Obama administration today. Well, I found about 6 articles that said the exact same thing (with the same title), probably because the budget was released in an agency-by-agency fashion....but that is a link to CBS's version.
It's an interesting article, but I wanted to sort of discuss the media's role in budgetary issues regarding government agencies instead of the budget itself. The budget affects a lot (arguably it affects everything), and it's interesting to see which sort of "factoids" the media will focus on. For instance, in times of economic woe a lot of the foreseen effects on employment are outlined. Given our deficit, this will snag a lot of airspace. Everyone wants to know exactly how the budgetary changes will affect them, which creates a challenge to the media: find information or "stories" that will catch the majority's eye, while still making it specialized and controversial enough to get people to read/watch. I think it will be interesting to see where the criticisms fall in the coming days after the release of the proposed budget.
I don't think the budget changes will affect me at all. I think this is just one more chance for Mr.Obama to set up an agenda for his upcoming re-election campaign. One more chance to distinguish himself from Congress and Republicans. One more chance to promote himself as a sovereign entity, completely disregarding the checks and balances that the framers instituted which cause him to work closely with Congress, specifically the House of Representatives in this case. This budget will never get passed, and Mr. Obama continues to ridicule Congressmen and Congresswoman for not bringing it to a vote, however he and they know that it will not pass so why bring it to the floor? Thus this plan will have to go through numerous changes and negotiations and the budget outlined will not be the budget which is passed in the coming senate session.
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