President Obama’s budget actually lifts 2012 spending significantly over the current CBO baseline. This increase signals that he has decided to try to push the Republicans towards a high-drama showdown on spending. He clearly thinks that he can win such a showdown, but I wonder. You can probably count on one hand the number of Americans who think the level of near-term spending in the last CBO outlook was too low, and this budget reveals that all of them apparently work in the White House.
— Kevin A. Hassett is director of Economic Policy Studies and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.