Assumptions are not outlandish. GDP seem growing 2.7% in 2012 and 3.0% in 2013. Unemployment seen at an average of 8.9% in 2012 and 8.6% in 2013. The budget does call for tax hikes on upper income taxpayers and will there fore be killed in the US House of Representatives. Most of this is posturing ahead of the 2012 election. Obama knows he has no chance of having tax hikes implemented, so he asks for them and then gets to blame Congress for favoring the rich. Rinse/repeat. (full story)