Here's the huse budget committee document prepared for today's hearing on fiscal policy. If this is Congressional Dems' thinking on the budget these days, I'd say that's progress. budget.house.gov/sites/democrat…
The starting point is an umambivalent argument in favor of fiscal stmulus in downturns. 
I appreciate the frank acknowledgement that the ARRA in 2009 was too small, and that unemployment remained higher, for longer, than it would have if the stimulus had been larger. It's good that "the stimulus was too small" is a mistake DC Dems are now copping to.
It's also good that they recognize that conventional monetary policy is going to be even weaker in the next recession than in the last one. And that that is a reason to be thinking about ramping up federal spending now.
Also important what is not present, at least in this document: any mention of deficit or debt reduction, even as a notional long-term goal. It's perhaps telling that the only time the word "debt" occurs is in a mention of student debt.
