Is Obama’s ‘freeze’ a fraud? Is there even a question?? 
Barack Obama: Too Much Pie
Obama Campaigns Against Spending Freezes
Obama will ask Congress to freeze spending for some domestic programs for three years. "Given Washington Democrats’ unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you’re going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest. Will the budget still double the debt over five years and triple it over 10? That's the bottom line," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner.
First of all, the spending freeze won't start until 2011. Second, the part of the budget singled out — $447 billion in domestic programs — amounts to one-eighth, of the overall federal budget. The estimated $250 billion in savings over 10 years would be less than 3 percent of the roughly $9 trillion in additional deficits the government is expected to accumulate over that time. And third, it would exempt security related budgets for the Pentagon, foreign aid, the Veterans Administration and Homeland Security, as well as the entitlement programs that make up the biggest and fastest-growing part of the federal budget: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Just for fun, let's flashback to the debates when Obama said, "The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel." Of course, as with most things this president does, it's a "symbolic" move. But his move is certain to further anger liberals in his party and senior Democrats in Congress, who are already upset by the possible collapse of health care legislation and the troop buildup in Afghanistan, among other things. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder reports that labor and other liberal special interest groups are venting fury at the White House already. It won't do anything to make conservatives like him. And most importantly, it does nothing to create jobs. (SOURCE: NYT, AP, Biz Insider)
Alex Conant: This isn't news. In the budget proposal that President Obama submitted to Congress last year, his budget office already projected actual cuts and freezes in "non-defense" discretionary spending for the next three years. That's in part because of the huge increase in that area of spending that the president requested (and received) for the current fiscal year. To be specific: FY2009 (President Bush's last budget) had $589 billion in non-defense discretionary spending. That number jumped to $687 billion in FY2010 (Obama’s first budget) and then drops to $641 billion in FY2011, $622 billion in FY2012 and $625 billion in FY2013. So for the White House to now boast that it will freeze non-defense discretionary spending is hardly news. If anything, it's backtracking on its earlier plans to actually cut that area of spending.
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Related:
Mr. Freeze. Hardly... The Fake Spending 'Restraint' of Obama
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The Democrats' Circular Firing Squad Set to Go Into Hyper-Mode After News of Obama's Spending Freeze
Obama to Seek Freeze on Some Spending to Trim Deficits
Obama to Seek Partial Three-Year Spending Freeze in 2011 Federal Budget
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