Obama's Budget; Wisconsin

(1) Obama's Budget: Our trustworthy source for analysis of Obama's 2012 budget proposal:  The National Priorities Project:

Presidents Budget 2012: Values By The Numbers

Feb. 18, 2011

National Priorities Project offers four detailed analyses of  President Obama’s $3.7 trillion budget for Fiscal Year 2012 focused on:  expenditures, revenue and deficits, the impact of federal spending on  the states and a detailed FY2012 budget overview with a selection of  actual and projected revenue and spending charts.

FY2012 Spending in Historical Perspective

What’s inside?

• Bar Chart – compares actual  FY2008 (last year before the recession) to estimated FY2011 and  proposed FY2012
• Federal Budget Pie Chart – shows  percentages of spending for Mandatory, Discretionary and interest  owed on the national debt

FY2012 Revenues and Deficits in Historical Perspective What’s inside?

• Bar Chart – breaks out FY2000 to  FY2012 federal revenue and borrowing
• Pie Chart – details projected  FY2012 revenues by source

Note: these features contain  embedded information that is accessed by scrolling over each bar or  pie slice.

Federal Spending at the State Level
What’s inside?

• Fully Downloadable Table –  presents state-level funding for  thirty-three federal programs,  including Medicaid, SNAP, CHIP, LIHEAP  and public housing
• View by state or program
• Compares FY2010 actual spending  with FY2011 estimated spending and FY2012 proposed spending
• Click on the program to find out  more about what it funds

The President’s Budget Unveiled What’s inside?

• Analysis – a complete overview  of President Obama’s proposed budget  highlighting salient points  and offering key questions to consider
• Revenue and Spending Charts – a  selection of actual and projected  revenue and spending information  in easy-to-understand chart formats

(2) More on Wisconsin: Things have continued to heat up in Wisconsin;  the message seems to be getting out there that the budget deficit is a pretext, in fact caused by tax breaks for businesses, all an excuse to bust unions. Here are some links about the ongoing push-back against the forces of reaction there:

<li>Doug Henwood of Left Business Observer was out there to give a talk, and <a href="http://lbo-news.com/2011/02/18/more-wisconsin/" target="_blank">had this to say</a> upon his return to Brooklyn;</li>
<li>Folks from the Center for Media and Democracy were doing <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/02/9944/live-reporting-wisconsin-protests" target="_blank">live blogging</a> from the protests yesterday;</li>
<li>Our pal Mark Engler had a blog post at the Dissent website entitled <a href="http://dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=380" target="_blank">The Wisconsin Uprising</a>;</li>
<li>An even more explicit comparison between Madison and Cairo appears at Alternet: <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/149942/is_wisconsin_our_egypt_15%2C000_protest_off-the-wall_right-wing_governor%27s_policies/" target="_blank">Is Wisconsin Our Egypt?</a>?</li>
<li>Michael Hudson (the economist, not the journalist) is interviewed at the Real News Network on how <a href="http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=31&amp;Itemid=74&amp;jumival=6241" target="_blank">Obama's Budget Pushes States into War with Their Unions</a>.</li>

That's all I have for now--back to work on the March/April issue.

--Chris Sturr