By Dan Balz
Friday, May 8, 2009
Restraint has not been the hallmark of President Obama's first budget. To attack the weak economy and to fulfill campaign promises on health care, energy and education, he has proposed spending and deficits on an unprecedented scale.
Obama has long insisted, however, that fiscal restraint is an integral part of his budgetary strategy, and yesterday he sought to prove that by releasing a list of 121 proposals that would cut a total of $17 billion from the 2010 budget.
They represent a minuscule down payment on a significantly larger problem. By themselves, the proposals are too small to impress his critics but probably too large for Congress to swallow.
