The Budget Fight is Significant and will affect the Middle Class and Poor Most. Rich will make money

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/4-ways-next-fight-over-spending-washington-could-seriously-affect-your-life?akid=12898.294211.InkFhU&rd=1&src=newsletter1033376&t=19

1. Republicans will try to keep us focused on a fake deficit crisis instead of the real need – sustainable growth and good-paying jobs.
Truth is, we’ve already reduced federal deficits too far, too fast – at the behest of a bipartisan austerity mania. That is a key reason the U.S. economy, according to the Congressional Budget Office, last year was running $723 billion below its potential. In the context of a $17 trillion economy, that’s a big deal – it’s jobs that weren’t created, money that did not end up in the pockets of workers, economic opportunities that did not materialize.
2. We will continue to shortchange the investments we need for sustainable growth.
One of the most tangible things Congress could do this year to support long-term economic growth is to pass a robust surface transportation reauthorization bill. No one disputes the fact that the country spends too little to maintain its roads, bridges and public transportation, and Congress faces a deadline of later this year.
But Republican leaders have shown no willingness to propose solutions that match the scope of the problem and rally support for those solutions.
3. The health care assault is about to get real.
The repeated and ineffectual votes to “repeal Obamacare” by congressional Republicans remain a source of ridicule, but what they will try to do to Medicare and Medicaid is no laughing matter.
It’s been a long-time vision of conservatives to convert Medicaid into a block-grant program that states would manage – or turn their backs on, as many right-wing states did by refusing to set up health-care exchanges.
4. We’re going to see upside-down tax policies on steroids, with the rich paying less and the poor paying more – even as conservatives keep pursuing the folly of a “balanced budget.”
Republicans have made it clear that one of their top policy goals is to lower top-end and corporate tax rates – the lower the better. What they won’t talk about – but we must – is who would end up paying for those tax cuts.
The coming budget debate is about more than numbers and political scorecards. Perhaps even more so than previous years, this is a debate over whether America will be an even more hostile place for working-class people or a country that takes seriously the challenge of making its economy and politics work for everyone