{"id":231355,"date":"2010-01-26T11:43:09","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T16:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/obama-s-underwhelming-spending-freeze-fakeroo-38619\/"},"modified":"2010-01-26T11:43:09","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T16:43:09","slug":"is-obamas-underwhelming-spending-freeze-a-fakeroo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/231355","title":{"rendered":"Is Obama?s underwhelming spending freeze a fakeroo?"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 01.26.10 08:41 AM posted by Alison Fraser<\/p>\n

The President has the right idea with his proposal to freeze spending.* Unfortunately, after driving spending to a record $3.7 trillion\u0097nearly 26% of GDP\u0097last year with the accompanying $1.4 trillion deficit, the proposal*is at best a bit….underwhelming.<\/p>\n

According to the administration, only $447 billion in spending would be subject to the freeze with a total of $15 billion to be*saved<\/a>.* *So this freeze would reduce the deficit by 1.1 percent or less than half a percent off of last year’s spending.**Details have yet to be announced, but those that have trickled out do make one wonder what spending forecasts the White House budgeters are reading.<\/p>\n

The good:<\/b><\/p>\n

Spending is out of control.* Under Obama, federal*spending increased in every category<\/a>\u0097in many cases massive increases driving spending to its highest point since WWII. Spending needs to be frozen*and<\/b>reduced.**Really<\/i>reduced.* If the President is serious about restoring confidence in his ability to control the excesses of Washington, he must go much further.<\/p>\n

The bad:<\/b><\/p>\n

First – this freeze would only apply to a sliver of total federal spending.* The administration has conjured up a new definition of spending called “non-security”, which would only affect about one-eighth of the budget.<\/p>\n

Second – as reported – the cap would not be imposed across the board. Some areas would see increases like “investments related to jobs creation” while others like The Department of Justice\u0097a core*constitutional function of government\u0097could see a cut<\/a>. Budgets are about setting priorities and*the President should be making such trade-offs across the entire federal budget.* He and every president before him have done just that. But calling it a freeze?* Puleeze.<\/p>\n

Third – the major drivers of spending are completely off the table. Spending on*Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is about to explode<\/a> as baby boomers swarm into retirement. It is impossible to be serious about bringing the budget under control or*restoring confidence in his ability to control the excesses of Washington<\/a> without taking action to limit spending on these programs.<\/p>\n

Fourth*- what additional spending would be outside the “freeze” and considered “security”? Emergency spending?**Members of Congress are highly*skilled at*turning an emergency*spending bill into a Christmas tree full of unrelated and outrageous spending. *A new stimulus bill all dressed up as a jobs bill? Capping repayments (e.g. free) of*college loans?**New subsidies for child care?<\/p>\n

Fifth – what level of spending would this*”freeze” apply to? If it applies to last year’s supercharged spending on stimulus steroids baseline, it’s no freeze at all, but a locking in of spending that was supposed to be temporary.* Alternatively, it would be very easy to undo any of the savings. For instance, one small jobs stimulus bill could wipe out all savings.<\/p>\n

The simple fact is this: no matter how they spin it, the President must hold spending level with last year\u0097minus all the temporary stimulus, TARP and other bailout spending\u0097otherwise this freeze is a fakeroo.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/01\/26\/…eze-a-fakeroo\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 01.26.10 08:41 AM posted by Alison Fraser The President has the right idea with his proposal to freeze spending.* Unfortunately, after driving spending to a record $3.7 trillion\u0097nearly 26% of GDP\u0097last year with the accompanying $1.4 trillion deficit, the proposal*is at best a bit….underwhelming. According to the administration, only $447 billion in spending would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}