Obama's Budget Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is

The ambitious scale of President Obama's budget is exciting for a lot of reasons.

First of all, the President used his first budget proposal to announce a return to the principle of progressive taxation. By rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthiest, and paying for his ambitious proposals by increasing taxes only on people earning more than $250,000 a year, Obama reverses eight years of government aid to the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class. Closing tax loopholes for hedge fund managers and canceling lucrative subsidies for insurance companies and drug manufacturers are part of the same program.

At the same time, the budget takes on our most serious domestic problems with more than a token effort: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions with a cap and trade program and an ambitious effort to expand access to health care are among the President's most ambitious plans. (How the health care plan will come out is still unclear, with Congress asked to come up with cuts to Medicare and Medicaid's private insurance contracts to pay for the plan.) Significant increases for everything from the Department of Health and Human Services to federally funded science programs also represent a major turn-around in our national priorities.

If Obama seemed to echo some the bipartisan "Third Way" rhetoric progressives grew allergic to during the Clinton Administration in last week's address to a joint session of Congress, his budget proposal is a welcome relief: bold, progressive, and an ideological brush-back to the Republicans.

Nowhere is this more evident than in how the government treats children. Among the most important investments the President makes in his budget is in the area of early childhood education.

During debate on the stimulus package that finally passed both houses of Congress, it looked as though the President's proposed increase for Head Start funding would be cut from over $2 billion to about $1 billion. Instead, the President has restored $1.2 billion in Head Start funding for Early Head Start. Likewise, between the stimulus bill and the budget plan, the Administration increased funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant by $2 billion, and came up with a $600 million increases in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which helps children with disabilities and their families.

The Obama budget plan also makes permanent at $2,500 tax credit to help pay for college, increases food aid and affordable housing for families who are hit hardest in the down economy, and expands children's health care.

"The sun is rising and we feel its warmth," says Sheila Skiffington of the Center for Children & Families--http://ccf.edc.org/aboutus/default.asp-- in Boston, Massachusetts. "On the federal level, the staff we interface with are excited. They want to see these programs succeed." Citing the Administration's commitment to quality early childhood education, and particularly the significant increases for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start, Skiffington says she is very encouraged. Obama gets it that quality early childhood education is crucial, "and that is reflected in his budget," she says.

The investment in child care couldn't come at a more important time, as many states have cut back subsidies for quality child care, even as parents are feeling more squeezed and centers are closing down as families withdraw when they lose jobs and can't afford preschool.

Along with renouncing torture and reopening diplomatic relations with the rest of the world, Obama has scored another moral victory for our country by striving to improve the treatment of our struggling families, and particularly children.