The President's Middle Class Economics

On February 2, the President released the FY 2016 Executive Budget. The Executive Budget, similar to the Governor’s budget, outlines the Executive priorities for federal programs and activities, beginning October 1, 2015. '

The good news: The proposal is very good for education and training; specifically programs that align to the President’s priorities laid out in the State of the Union. The budget reinforces the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the administration’s job-driven training action plan, and proposals to support middle-class economics.

If you have watched any political talk shows recently, you’ve heard commentators express concern that the proposal violates past budget agreements and contributes to the burgeoning deficit and debt. In reality, based on the structure of the budget, spending is completely offset by savings from entitlement programs and other tax measures. As some economists have noted, the proposal doesn’t violate the Budget Control Act (BCA), which put sequestration in place, it actually does what was originally intended by the BCA– creates savings in mandatory programs to achieve a deficit reduction.

The bad news: Odds of this budget getting traction in Congress are slim. Instead this is a signal from the White House to Congress about the importance of these programs. That doesn’t mean it has no impact, it means we need to use it as a tool as we advocate to Congress.

To read the full budget visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/

Below is a snapshot of what was included, we'll keep you posted as we learn more:

A shout out to the National Skills Coalition, National Association of Workforce Boards, and CLASP whose earlier publications informed this post in addition to the Executive Budget docs!

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