Obama Proposing Freeze On Discretionary Spending
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I’d like some details on this.
On the soaring federal deficit, Obama will announce on Wednesday that the budget blueprint he files next week will contain a ‘hard freeze’ on discretionary spending that lasts through 2013, an effort his advisers liken to the fiscal discipline families impose on themselves every day.
The freeze will not apply to spending on national security or on the agencies charged with protecting it, and it affects roughly one-sixth of the federal budget.
UPDATE: Some previous Obama quotes from the presidential debates about spending freezes. It seems consistent with what he’s proposing here:
“The problem with a spending freeze is you’re using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. There are some programs that are very important that are under funded. I went to increase early childhood education and the notion that we should freeze that when there may be, for example, this Medicare subsidy doesn’t make sense.”
“And that’s why I think it’s important for the president to set a tone that says all of us are going to contribute, all of us are going to make sacrifices, and it means that, yes, we may have to cut some spending, although I disagree with Senator McCain about an across-the- board freeze.
That’s an example of an unfair burden sharing. That’s using a hatchet to cut the federal budget.
I want to use a scalpel so that people who need help are getting help and those of us, like myself and Senator McCain, who don’t need help, aren’t getting it.
That’s how we make sure that everybody is willing to make a few sacrifices.”
“Well, look, I think that we do have a disagreement about an across-the-board spending freeze. It sounds good. It’s proposed periodically. It doesn’t happen.
And, in fact, an across-the-board spending freeze is a hatchet, and we do need a scalpel, because there are some programs that don’t work at all. There are some programs that are underfunded. And I want to make sure that we are focused on those programs that work.”
“I do want to just point out that autism, for example, or other special needs will require some additional funding, if we’re going to get serious in terms of research. That is something that every family that advocates on behalf of disabled children talk about.
And if we have an across-the-board spending freeze, we’re not going to be able to do it. That’s an example of, I think, the kind of use of the scalpel that we want to make sure that we’re funding some of those programs.”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
The moment I saw this on CNN, I looked toward my husaband and said, “Oh boy, this will piss off even more Democrats.” And from reading the blogs, I was right. My hunch is that this is more strategic than anything else.
Democrats seems to be falling apart these days. They need to get their shit together.
Why is President Obama following the Republican’s agenda?
*sigh* He’s looking less and less like a Democrat the more his presidency goes.
Is the GOP agenda increasing college aid, credits for child care, and a job stimulus? No. Oh, okay then.
Okay then let’s see how well those things turn out because we all know how well his mortgage stimulus is surely helping middle class families….oh wait it’s not.
It’s weird that I just read that over the weekend on the Sunday shows that pundits where basically telling President Obama to pick a fight with Democrats. http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/matt-dowd-best-thing-president-do-get-figh
I guess he picked one.
I need to find out more. It seems like Clinton level triangulation and could be pretty smart for electoral purposes. It takes an issue away from the teabaggers and forces Republicans to “put up or shut up” with their claims to be fiscally responsible. And that is all they are, claims. Republicans will never support something that doesn’t allow them to funnel money to their core constituencies.
[...] also worth mentioning that during all three Presidential debates, Obama was fervently opposed to this type of spending freeze. Any takers on a bet that this becomes more of the focus of the [...]
It’s totally tone deaf for a (D) politician to do this. All the folks out there who carry the message that stimulus is the right thing during a recession are on their own.
Folks who have layoffs at their local school (hey, taxes are down at the state level, and the feds have a spending freeze for discretionary funds!) are SOL.
But money for killing people overseas, that’s OK to increase spending on because it’s war. EXCUSE ME?
If this freeze is good for domestic stuff, it’s good for military spending too. But since it’s targeted at domestic only, we know it’s a craven ploy.
I’ll wait for the details, but it’s not starting out so nice.
Unbelievable. He’s still desperate to appease Republicans.
Fail.
Before you dedicated socialists all panic remember that Obama’s word about matters in the present has little to do with matters in the future and He doesn’t control spending with the exception of his veto or executive order. He’s just blowing smoke…again.
Has nothing to do with Repugs & everything to do with Independents. He is bleeding Indys and spending & deficit poll poll high with them as negatives.
“If this freeze is good for domestic stuff, it’s good for military spending too. But since it’s targeted at domestic only, we know it’s a craven ploy.”
So true, so true.
Oliver, you have got to be kidding. The quotes you cite do not support what he’s doing now, unless you believe that military spending has been surgically reduced to its bare minimum, or that domestic security spending is aimed at autism. In one stupid stroke he has fucked the economy and the middle class, he has promoted nonsensical GOP memes, and he has made it a sure thing that the Democrats will lose the Congress this year. Heckuva job, Deficit Dipshit!
Oh, and I hope Howard Dean primaries him in ’12. I would hit the trail for him.
Proof that liberals are also capable of crazy bed wetting hysteria like the right.
I just read a comment on MYDD that Obama will be to blame if Dems lose in 2010. Um, REALLY!?! If dems need Obama to fucking hold their hands every step of the way, then maybe they don’t need their jobs anymore!
The Republicans are winning….by saying NO. NO! How is that even possible?!?! But they are doing it because the democrats have NO message. They can’t agree on anything anymore. And every damn time there are conflicting messages, the progressive get their panties in a wad….by joining the teabaggers. Wow.
I bet Obama is just amazed at the stupidity of his own party. He’s their leader, yes, but he’s NOT the be all end all of healthcare/climate change/job growth etc. Dems in congress have to do their job too. And they aren’t doing it.
Damn!
Barack Obama is burning his base. I don’t think any rational person could deny that. He’s sold us out on Health Care which is more than just another issue, it was the flagship of his domestic agenda. He never really pushed hard for it in the same way he has his financial program, even though he said over and over that it was essential for the economy to recover to get real health care reform. His deal making with Pharma was a bad place to start, his acquiescence to the Baucus side of the Senate Democrats on our health care is in contrast to his disregard of those in the House and Senate who have promoted what he said he wanted.
I agree he’s better than McCain would have been and he does produce on little things, which are nice but hardly sufficient. I could end up voting for him again if the certain alternative is horribly worse, which it will be. But I won’t work for him and my credibility all got spent on his first campaign. I won’t be sending money, I’m broke.
If he is being abandoned by the base of the Democratic Party, he’s got no one to blame but himself as he and his Chief of Staff have pretty much made it clear they have no time for us.
He’s too wedded to the rules and traditions of the Senate, hardly surprising since the only office he ever held was as a member of Senates, his bold eloquent sounding words aren’t matched by fight, his political strategy is a disaster and his chosen appointees are shafting us.
I’m not wetting the bed, I’m wide awake watching this disaster develop.
Obama is abandoning his lame agenda because he wants another term – to tell more lies, make more empty promises, and drive the nation further into debt.
That’s exactly what I thought. I want to hear more details.
That’s what I was thinking. Obama is a pragmatist; I just wonder if he realized the reaction he’d get from the leftosphere.