Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Obama's Big Freeze



Obama wants to freeze big spending for 3 years.

Interesting...
President Obama will announce in Wednesday's State of the Union address that he's proposing to save $250 billion by freezing all nonsecurity federal discretionary spending for three years, according to two senior administration officials.

The proposed freeze, which could help position Obama in the political center by sharpening his credentials on fiscal discipline, would exempt the budgets of the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs, along with some international programs.

"We are at war, and we're going to make sure our troops are funded adequately," one of the senior officials said.

The officials would not reveal the details of which domestic programs would be cut, as they prepare to face major pushback from liberals in the president's own party because popular education and health spending could be on the chopping block. The details will be officially unveiled February 1, when the president publicly releases his next budget blueprint for fiscal year 2011 -- which starts October 1 -- and beyond.

"We've got to make some tough decisions," the second senior official said. "Everybody is not going to get what they want."

Under the proposal, which would need to be approved by both houses of Congress, all federal discretionary spending would be frozen at its current level of $447 billion per year. Within that parameter, however, individual federal agencies would have the power to give some programs increases, while cutting money elsewhere.

This will also force Repubs to stop acting like brats and get on course.

But the question will be... Is this going to work.

source

6 comments:

EMikeGarcia said...

How will it "force" Republicans to do anything? I'm pretty sure they'll find a way to critiscize him on this too... Sadly, depending on what is cut, this could kill him with Liberals.

Is this another compromise on his behalf to Republicans?

Larry Ohio said...

Worst idea ever.

Remember what Bush Sr's "Read my lips. No new taxes" did to him? It lost him the White House.

For Obama to do this isn't just career suicide, it is just plain stupid. And Obama isn't a stupid man! WTF!

J. Clarence said...

"Is it going to work?"

It's not designed to work, V. It's a political move meant to only impress Independent voters, so in that respect it already has worked. But in practical terms it's a drop in the bucket over the next 10 years, and does nothing to fix the structural problems. The administration doesn't even deny this.

It's like covering a hole in the wall with a poster and saying you fixed the problem. It looks pretty, but you still have a hole in your wall.

Anonymous said...

It will be really interesting to see what happens.

Paul Benjamin said...

I don't remember voting for a Republican president. I guess that is what we are getting anyway, though...

Kyle Leach said...

V, J. Clarence is right this is just a political positioning move. Unfortunately, I don't think it will help him much. He is in the middle of a mess right now.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.