{"id":229741,"date":"2010-01-25T19:58:42","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T00:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/obama-to-announce-spending-freeze-for-tiny-sliver-of-the-federal-budget-that-wont-effect-anything-2010-1"},"modified":"2010-01-25T19:58:42","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T00:58:42","slug":"obama-to-announce-spending-freeze-for-tiny-sliver-of-the-federal-budget-that-wont-effect-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/229741","title":{"rendered":"Obama To Announce Spending Freeze For Tiny Sliver Of The Federal Budget That Won’t Effect Anything"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"barack<\/p>\n

Deficit hawks, your voices have been heard loud and clear!<\/p>\n

You’re tired of all the spending and so is Obama, and he’ll announce at this wednesday’s State of the Union that he’s going to “freeze” spending growth.<\/p>\n

Well, kind of.<\/p>\n

As The Wall Street Journa<\/a>l and other outlets are reporting, the freeze will apply to the discretionary, non-military part of the budget. That ccounts for 17% of the budget.<\/p>\n

Healthcare, defense, Social Security, etc. – i.e. the 83% of the budget that really matters — are all left intact to grow like bamboo.<\/p>\n

This is not Obama’s fault. “Bending the curve” in any one of these other areas would require a Herculean task beyond the powers of a party with a mere 59-41 Senate majority.<\/p>\n

Still, it will be interesting to see if the market moves on this news. Our sense is that despite what supply-siders would have you believe, the market is not that eager for true austerity.<\/p>\n

And though our debt will continue to pile high into the sky, this could effect certain public works and other areas that might have benefitted from more stimulus, and so this news could whack into stocks.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation about this story »<\/a><\/p>\n

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