Stan Collender, a partner at Qorvis Communications and a veteran of budget work on Capitol Hill, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss the prospects for the budget given the probable electioneering and brinksmanship in an election year .

The budget request takes a long-term view on reducing the deficit.

"But it doesn't go all the way — it doesn't balance the budget over 10 years," Collender said. "And it's not clear that any proposal, given the size of the deficit and the needs of the economy, would be able to do that."

Collender called the overall budget request "cautious."

But even so, it won't escape the political wrangling likely to be all-consuming in an election year.

"I wonder why anyone thinks a deal is likely or even possible this year given all the budget-deal failures of the previous year when the politics weren't that close to an election year."

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