After days of dribs and drabs about what's in the Obama budget, today we finally get the figures on what exactly the President wants to do with his budget for the Fiscal Year 2012.
The White House does call for cuts, highlighted by a five year freeze on domestic, non-security spending that Mr. Obama outlined in his State of the Union Address in January.
There are also evidently all kinds of other cutbacks - but much of it is aimed at saving money inside a department in certain programs, but not cutting back on the overall level of spending for that agency.
Reportedly, there will be tax increases in this budget as well, some dealing with an end for the Bush tax rates for those making over $200,000/year for an individual and $250,000/year for a couple.
But the White House won't be getting anywhere near a balanced budget in the next few years when the bottom line is unveiled today.
The introduction of the Obama budget comes at an interesting time, as Republicans this week will be involved in a Battle Royal on the House floor over budget cuts in this year's budget.
GOP leaders on Friday unveiled $60.8 billion in cuts this year, a figure that might go up this week when the bill is brought on the floor for amendments starting on Tuesday.
Once again, don't swallow the figure of $100 billion in budget cuts that some Republicans keep touting, because that figure is compared to the proposed Obama budget which was introduced a year ago, and never enacted by the Congress.
Some Republicans - who just last week complained to me about how the leadership was using fake budget cutting numbers - were using the bogus budget cut number in their press releases on Friday.
While the two efforts aren't truly related, since the GOP is focusing on the current budget year, and the President's plan focuses on next year - they will get swept up together.
For example, one would have to wonder if any Republicans will look at all of the different cuts being proposed by the President for next year and offer up an amendment on the House floor that would make those cuts right now.
If they're good enough to start October 1 of this year, why not start them a bit sooner and save a bit more money?
That includes some savings from the Defense Department, which reportedly will be tagged for $78 billion by the White House.
There are three ways to look at this budget submission today by the President:
1) It's Dead on Arrival - I mean, come on. You think you are going to get tax increases and more through the Republican House? Are you on something?
2) It's the start of a big compromise on the budget - while I wouldn't bet on this outcome, I don't think it can be written off. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes right now involving Senators of both parties on a longer term budget deal.
3) It's just the start of a huge budget battle, one which could involve a lot of Legislative Chicken on both sides and lots of talk of a government shutdown.
Right now, I can see a mix of all three of those.
The devil is in the details, and we will get a lot of those this week from both sides. After days of dribs and drabs about what's in the Obama budget, today we finally get the figures on what exactly the President wants to do with his budget for the Fiscal Year 2012. The White House does call for cuts, highlighted by a five year freeze on domestic, non-security ...
