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Summary

The president's budget submission presents progressives with an
important opportunity to expose the failures of the president's broader
economic program and how these failures have put additional pressures on
an already burdened middle class.

Four years of wrong choices by the administration have left the country
in perilous fiscal shape. The administration continues to try to paper
over the mounting evidence that it has been an irresponsible steward of
our economy. But this budget exposes some fundamental truths about the
real and detrimental impact its policies have had on the middle class.
Based on this work, we suggest four key messages to help define the
contrasts with the president and Congress on policy priorities and then
provide some core principles to help define a progressive alternative.

1. "Wrong Choices. Wrong Priorities." This is the core of the
criticism of the conservative economic agenda. Americans expect their
leaders to make the right decisions and push the right priorities.
President Bush and a conservative-led Congress have failed to make the
right decisions and now Americans will have to pay the price.
2. "Cutting investment in what keeps America strong." The White
House is seeking to make the most of its incompetence and mismanagement
by forcing massive cuts and harsh caps on discretionary spending and
entitlements. Progressives must make the most of these efforts by
highlighting the severe budget implications for ordinary Americans.
3. "We now see WHO and WHAT conservatives really value." The
absolute surrender of conservative politicians to the needs and desires
of corporations and the wealthy presents important openings for
progressives to stress the lack of moral vision and wrong values that
drive conservative tax and budget policies.
4. "The consequences for America are dire." Progressives must
highlight how conservative stewardship is undermining America's economic
strength. Fiscal mismanagement affects everyone. We must raise the
stakes for Americans and show them the very real consequences of the
wrong choices and wrong priorities of the president and Congress.

"President Bush and Congress squandered historic budget surpluses that
could have saved Social Security. They have spent over $200 billion on a
war in Iraq that is plagued by mismanagement and lack of planning.
They've racked up huge trade deficits and mortgaged our children's
future to foreign banks and governments.

Conservative priorities have made the struggle of the middle class even
more of a challenge: jobs are going overseas; quality health care is
increasingly out of reach; educational opportunities are down; and the
tax system is rigged not to help them, but big corporations and the top
1 percent of wage earners instead.

And what does the president want to do?

He wants to make it worse. More tax cuts for the wealthy. A $2 trillion
plan to privatize Social Security. More deficits. More foreign borrowing.

Americans know these are the wrong choices and the wrong priorities. We
need leaders who will make the right choices and push the right
priorities to keep America strong.

Under progressive stewardship of the budget, the economy was strong, the
middle class was better off and America's budgets were balanced. There
are better choices to be made."

Specific budget details to highlight these points include:

* Deficits. In 2000, the federal government was running a surplus
of 2.4 percent of GDP, or $236 billion. In just a few short years,
deficits have returned, and for 2005 deficits are estimated to be at
least 3.5 percent of GDP, or about $427 billion, according to the
president's budget. This historic swing in the budgetary outlook
represents fiscal mismanagement on a grand scale.
* Unmentioned debt holes. Rather than address the deficit
seriously, the president has taken tax cuts off the table and refused to
include the trillions in new debt that will be required to pay for his
Social Security privatization scheme and the ongoing military actions in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
* Tax cuts vs. spending. As NPR recently reported, President Bush's
budget cuts make up only 6 percent of the federal budget deficit, while
his tax cuts make up 50 percent. Taking half of the deficit problem off
the table will only make matters worse.

"President Bush claimed to be a 'compassionate conservative.' He said he
wanted to reward those who worked hard and did their part for the country.

Now we see what he really values: Wealth over work. Corporations and the
wealthy over the middle class.

At a time when the president is asking American soldiers and
middle-class taxpayers to sacrifice for the country, he is telling
corporations and the wealthy that they owe nothing and have no
obligation to support the national interest. He's giving them tax breaks
for doing nothing.

We now know who and what the president truly values. Unfortunately, it's
not what Americans signed up for."