A Reaganesque budget

Both the Beltway Democrats and the conservative deficit hawks share the conceit that the nation’s future revolves completely around what they do in Washington. This reduces the people to bystanders. That may work for Europe’s parliamentary systems, but it’s not the way things work here. Successful politics here draws people into its drama, and that means offering something bigger to believe in than deficit reduction. And guess what, progressives: The “safety net” isn’t what moves a nation, either. Think bigger.

Barack Obama, with rhetoric alone, conveyed in 2008 that he was enlisting the whole nation to participate in his sweeping vision. He has not sustained the sweep or the vision. Instead, he withdrew into a truly wonkish world of Beltway-driven policy.

Paul Ryan’s budget is inevitably about what Washington does (or refuses to do). But its underlying rationale is to reorder the relationship between Washington and the American people—country first, Washington behind. That notion is what November’s startling tea party and independent vote for the GOP was about, and what the party’s Senate and House freshmen appear to understand. Properly understood, this is the first presidential budget message of the new Republican Party.