Budget: Political Push Marches On

The activist/lobbying effort to pass President Obama's budget blueprint is marching on, as Americans United for Change today announced its fifth television ad with that intent, to air on cable in DC. Along with fellow liberal action group USAction, Americans United for Change has continued to push for the budget with radio and TV spots since Obama introduced it, some airing nationally and some aimed at specific states. The group says it has spent at least $400,000 of a planned $825,000 for its budget campaign.

Much attention has been given to the budget push undertaken by Organizing for America (OFA), the e-mail list and website of the Obama campaign, now run by the Democratic National Committee. But the progressive groups have been much more aggressive politically, showing more willingness to bare their liberal teeth and attack, and OFA's efforts seem politically innocuous by comparison.
While OFA has gathered signatures, delivered them to offices, and aired one TV ad, the progressives have directly targeted skeptical Democrats and sought to exact a political price on Republicans for opposing Obama's blueprint, pushing the "party of no" line of attack routinely. (Congress's budget probably will not be identical to Obama's blueprint, and the president will likely have to make concessions, but that's how the fight is being cast: Obama's budget vs. those who oppose it.)

OFA seems bound by Obama's promises of bipartisanship and openness to opposing ideas; Americans United and USAction, evidently, are not. It only makes sense that they would comprise the aggressive wing of the budget effort, and that's exactly what they're doing.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/04/budget-political-push-marches-on/7311/