by the Left Coast Rebel
This just broke from Politico and the Wall Street Journal, aside from focusing on jobs and such (reeling from Mass.), the Obamanation is rumored to plan a 3 year freeze in discretionary, non defense federal spending. I don’t know the detail/loopholes/posturing of such a thing but obviously this would be seen by the nutroots as a massive retracement of the leftwing agenda. Could it be a hoax as is PayGo? I assume that The One is simply just playing another bait and switch game, the joke being on Americans that live within their means. Reading here in the Wall Street Journal, this seems to be a pittance, a ruse, emphasis mine:
To attack the $1.4 trillion deficit, the White House will propose a three-year freeze on discretionary spending unrelated to the military, veterans, homeland security and international affairs, according to senior administration officials. Also untouched are big entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
But the president said Monday that he remains committed to tackling health care and other big problems. “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,” he told ABC News.The freeze would affect $447 billion in spending, or 17% of the total federal budget, and would likely be overtaken by growth in the untouched areas of discretionary spending. It’s designed to save $250 billion over the coming decade, compared to what would have been spent had this area been allowed to rise along with inflation.
My preliminary reaction after just scanning this information from the Journal? A complete headfake aimed at quelling fears of out of control spending. A pittance. The Lonely Conservative also weighs in on the fact that the proposed ‘freeze’ will do nil for the national debt – the true leviathan.
Discussion via Memeorandum
UPDATED: Sara in Italy thinks that this ‘freeze’ plan has about as much legitimacy as Bristol Palin’s celibacy does. Nice analogy, you guys should check out her content today – she’s on a roll!
TKZ that blogs over at Knowledge Czar thinks this is a sham as well, pointing to Obama’s lack of trustworthyness and credibility: A freeze on spending? I’ll believe it when I see it. Even if he says it, he has proven himself to be untrustworthy. He makes promises all the time. He’ll find a way around his own promise, even if that means pretending he never said it.
Reaganite posted today as well (even though it is not related to this ‘freeze’ in spending), on the Obama posturing that we see here. Funny that he did before this news came out, read it and see why.
7 comments:
Thanks for the link!!
I have more faith in Bristol Palin's celibacy pledge.
A freeze on spending? I'll believe it when I see it. Even if he says it, he has proven himself to be untrustworthy. He makes promises all the time. He'll find a way around his own promise, even if that means pretending he never said it.
Will this be before or after his pledge of transparency?
What good does it do to "freeze" spending when the current spending rate guarantees a trillion-plus annual deficit? Too bad the typical American voter will buy this hogwash. http://www.rightwingagenda.blogspot.com
Its all sly timing on BO's part. There is a catastrophe brewing.
Social Security is off the budget. Doesn't matter anyway. Social Security is going into the red about the end of the year. They will have to spend their treasuries. But treasuries have to be redeemed out of the general fund. So the Democrats will either move Social Security to the general fund, or punt to the probable Republican majority. In which case, wait for the accusations that the Republicans did it.
Isn't that just peachy?
Unlike during the second term of the Bush administration, deficit spending is actually called for right now. If this freeze is enacted, it will be a drop in the bucket, but it shows commitment to reducing/eliminating the structural deficit. We’ll see whether they follow through with significant cuts when the next expansion cycle starts.
Right now this is a drop in the bucket, which is precisely what we need at this time.
The best deficit fighters in my lifetime were President Clinton and the Republican-led Congress starting in 1995. This is not a partisan issue.
Post a Comment
Comments that contain cursing, threats, David Plouffe trolls, circular reasoning, incendiary language, or general leftist hate and moonbattery may be deleted by the Left Coast Rebel….