Obama: Electoral Budget

Published in La Jornada
(Mexico) on 3 February 2015
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Jessica Fernandez Rhodes. Edited by Emily France.
The budget proposal presented yesterday by President Barack Obama marks a turning point in fiscal policy which, over the past six years, has been characterized by maintaining the general outline of his predecessor. After some initial criticism of the greed of big capital, pronounced within the context of the economic crisis starting in 2008, the first African-American president quickly bowed to the neo-liberal orthodoxy, and since then his administration has favored corporations and individual fortunes at the expense of the majority of the population.

The proposed budget for 2016 is instead a document characterized by a spirit of income redistribution, with social programs financed by a tax increase to businesses and higher-income U.S. citizens. The proposed measures include a one-time, 14 percent tax on the profits acquired abroad by U.S. corporations, such as General Electric and Microsoft, and a subsequent rate of 19 percent on such foreign earnings. On the other hand, he proposes the creation of a new infrastructure bank and raising the budget on research and development by six percent.

We must not overlook the fact that while this orientation in public finance of the world's largest economy is betting on strengthening, to some extent, the middle class and society in general, it also has a clear political, and even electoral, meaning; indeed, the budget proposal aims to corner the Republican majority in Congress, which is against tax hikes and in favor of giving leeway to business conglomerates.

Obama's budget puts Republican lawmakers in a difficult dilemma: either they yield, even partially, to the presidential initiative, or they expose themselves to the electorate as promoters of inequality.

In the middle of his second and last term, Obama, for his part, does not have a political career to take care of and can afford the luxury of seeking the electoral support of his party without having to worry about big capital's animosity.

While it is hoped that this proposed budget will obtain the necessary votes in Congress, at least for its most important parts, it is a shame that the emphasis on redistribution was not defended earlier by the White House, when it held the congressional majority and when it could have made the difference between a recession and economic recovery.


La propuesta de presupuesto presentada ayer por el presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, marca un viraje en la política fiscal, que en los pasados seis años se caracterizó por mantener los lineamientos generales de su antecesor en el cargo: tras algunos alegatos iniciales en contra de la voracidad de los grandes capitales, pronunciados en el contexto de la crisis económica iniciada en 2008, el primer presidente afroestadunidense se plegó rápidamente a la ortodoxia neoliberal y, desde entonces, su administración ha privilegiado a corporaciones y fortunas individuales en detrimento de la mayoría de la población.

El proyecto de presupuesto para 2016 es, en cambio, un documento caracterizado por un espíritu de redistribución del ingreso, con programas sociales financiados a partir de un incremento impositivo a las empresas y a los estadunidenses de mayores ingresos. Entre las medidas propuestas destaca un impuesto de 14 por ciento, por una sola vez, a los beneficios obtenidos en el extranjero por grandes corporaciones de origen estadunidense, como General Electric y Microsoft, y una tasa subsecuente de 19 por ciento para tales utilidades de procedencia foránea. En contraparte, plantea la creación de un nuevo banco de infraestructura y aumentar 6 por ciento el presupuesto destinado a investigación y desarrollo.

No debe obviarse el hecho de que, si bien esta orientación en las finanzas públicas de la mayor economía del mundo apuesta por fortalecer en alguna medida a la clase media y a la sociedad en general, tiene también un claro sentido político e incluso electoral: en efecto, el proyecto de presupuesto apunta a acorralar a la mayoría republicana en el Congreso, opuesta a las alzas impositivas y partidaria de otorgar manga ancha a los conglomerados empresariales.

El presupuesto de Obama coloca a los legisladores republicanos en una difícil disyuntiva: o ceden, así sea parcialmente a la iniciativa presidencial, o se exhiben ante el electorado como promotores de la desigualdad.

Situado en la mitad de su segundo y último mandato, Obama, por su parte, ya no tiene una carrera política por cuidar y puede darse el lujo de procurar el beneficio electoral de su partido, el Demócrata, sin preocuparse de la animadversión de los grandes capitales.

Aunque cabe esperar que este proyecto de presupuesto consiga los votos necesarios en el Capitolio, al menos para sus partes sustanciales, es de lamentar que el acento en la redistribución no haya sido defendido antes por la Casa Blanca, cuando ésta contaba con mayorías legislativas, y cuando habría podido marcar la diferencia entre la recesión y la recuperación económica.
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