Liberals Heap Praise on Obama’s Budget Speech

President Barack Obama gave the speech on Wednesday that liberals have been longing to hear, The Caucus blog of The New York Times reports. Judging by the online reaction to the president’s budget address, Obama pleased his base in calling for new taxes and opposing Republican ideas for Medicare savings.

“Liberals have wanted a full-throated affirmation of why government is a good thing,” blogger Jonathan Bernstein wrote. “Obama delivered.”

Many on the left had worried beforehand that Obama would use the speech to surrender ground in the budget battles — a charge of capitulation the president has heard often from his allies. Instead they came away reassured that Obama still believes in what blogger Steve Benen called “the institutions of the modern welfare state."

“To be sure,” the Times reported, “the same rhetoric that fired up liberals on Wednesday was quickly condemned by Republicans as evidence that Mr. Obama is not serious about the nation’s fiscal challenges.”