Obama to freeze spending!

[KD in CA]

Well, other than spending for the Pentagon, DHS, Medicare, Social Security, new healthcare legislation, federal gov't employee raises/pensions/benefits, ongoing billion-dollar giveaways to Detroit and anywhere else with a lot of union votes, pet projects for any Dem Senators, etc.

 

Does he really think that anyone other than his loyal nitwits are going to be fooled by the headlines?

 

 

Even pro-Obama writers can't make it sound convincing.

[VABills]

Well, other than spending for the Pentagon, DHS, Medicare, Social Security, new healthcare legislation, federal gov't employee raises/pensions/benefits, ongoing billion-dollar giveaways to Detroit and anywhere else with a lot of union votes, pet projects for any Dem Senators, etc.

 

Does he really think that anyone other than his loyal nitwits are going to be fooled by the headlines?

 

 

Even pro-Obama writers can't make it sound convincing.

He's just making some noise to ensue the lemmings know he is still there and know which cliff he is getting ready to jump off, so they'll follow and swallow.

[keepthefaith]

He's just making some noise to ensue the lemmings know he is still there and know which cliff he is getting ready to jump off, so they'll follow and swallow.

 

I'm sure they've poll-tested the phrase "spending freeze" and learned that it generates a positive response. Leave it to him to raise spending by dramatic amounts and then use a "freeze" so that he can maintain it.

[IDBillzFan]

Well, other than spending for the Pentagon, DHS, Medicare, Social Security, new healthcare legislation, federal gov't employee raises/pensions/benefits, ongoing billion-dollar giveaways to Detroit and anywhere else with a lot of union votes, pet projects for any Dem Senators, etc.

 

Does he really think that anyone other than his loyal nitwits are going to be fooled by the headlines?

 

 

Even pro-Obama writers can't make it sound convincing.

You have to give him credit. It's been estimated that it will save over $15 billion in the first year. Of course, he's helped create a $1.4 TRILLION deficit for this year, so it's essentially the equivalent of promising to photocopy on both sides of the paper, but it's a start.

 

On the other hand, he's finally got bipartisan agreement on something. Both sides are pissing all over this pre-SOTU "I'm working for the people" speech for tomorrow.

[Magox]

I'm all for anything that get's the Libs in a tizzy.

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32033.html

 

Krugman, once a stalwart defender of the president who has only recently turned critical, said a freeze would be “a betrayal of everything Obama’s supporters thought they were working for.”

 

“Just like that, Obama has embraced and validated the Republican world-view — and more specifically, he has embraced the policy ideas of the man he defeated in 2008,” Krugman added.

 

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow called the plan “completely, completely insane.”

 

Paul Rosenberg of the liberal blog Open Left described the move as a clear sign that Obama is “an idiot,” doomed to repeat the causes of the Great Depression.

 

David Dyen of the liberal site Firedoglake added: “Obama is basically saying that the stimulus fixed the economy, that there will be no further government support measures and that he’ll govern like a hybrid of John McCain and Herbert Hoover for the rest of his term to curry favor with the deficit maniacs.”

 

“It uses the full power of the bully pulpit to reaffirm and endorse a kind of ignorance that the right wing has spent years stoking, and in so doing further erodes what little conceptual and rhetorical foundation we have domestically for social democracy,” wrote Christopher Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation. “I wish there was a way to sue for political malpractice, because what we’re seeing from the White House and congressional Democrats these last two weeks would make for a depressingly good case.”

 

Progressive polling analyst Nate Silver, meanwhile, called the plan a political “mistake” in a post on his blog FiveThirtyEight, titled “The White House’s Brain Freeze.”

 

“I’m fairly certain that the ‘spending freeze’ will poll well in the near term and may even take Obama's approval numbers up a point or so with it,” Silver wrote. “But Obama's not the one on the ballot in 2010. In the medium run, it's most likely effect is to confuse voters. And in the long run, it'll probably either be forgotten about or become another broken promise.”

 

“The narrative about the ‘perpetual campaign’ is generally kind of facile,” he added, “but this whole thing has a weirdly campaign-trail quality to it.”

 

Anything that gets these looneys this stirred up has got to be good for the country.

 

Sure it only covers discretionary spending, which makes up approximately 16% of the annual federal budget and is expected to shave off 3% off of next years deficit, but it's a start.

 

Having said that, you guys remember

[manateefan]

Well, other than spending for the Pentagon, DHS, Medicare, Social Security, new healthcare legislation, federal gov't employee raises/pensions/benefits, ongoing billion-dollar giveaways to Detroit and anywhere else with a lot of union votes, pet projects for any Dem Senators, etc.

 

Does he really think that anyone other than his loyal nitwits are going to be fooled by the headlines?

 

 

Even pro-Obama writers can't make it sound convincing.

 

All I know is the "tax cut" I got earlier in the year when withholding was reduced, I now have to pay it back when I file my taxes. I didn't get anything. Thankfully, my husband and I were aware enough to have an extra $5.00 withheld from our pay every pay period so we don't have to write a check to the government.

[/dev/null]

Having said that, you guys remember

 

Change you can believe in

[KD in CA]

All I know is the "tax cut" I got earlier in the year when withholding was reduced, I now have to pay it back when I file my taxes. I didn't get anything. Thankfully, my husband and I were aware enough to have an extra $5.00 withheld from our pay every pay period so we don't have to write a check to the government.

Just wait till next year when the Bush tax cuts expire.

 

Oh wait, that'll only be a tax hike for "the rich".

[IDBillzFan]

Having said that, you guys remember

I heard Charles Krauthhammer say today: "This isn't a hatchet or a scalpel. It's a Q-tip."

[Simon]

Wow, what a bunch of cynics.

This administration finally takes a little shuffle in the right direction and everybody's all over them. I'm sure all the negative backlash will encourage them to move farther in the direction many of us have been begging them to go.

After struggling through a bad slump the guy finally slapped a seeing eye single to right; give him a little pat on the ass and tell him to go steal second, eh?

[Jim in Anchorage]

Wow, what a bunch of cynics.

This administration finally takes a little shuffle in the right direction and everybody's all over them. I'm sure all the negative backlash will encourage them to move farther in the direction many of us have been begging them to go.

After struggling through a bad slump the guy finally slapped a seeing eye single to right; give him a little pat on the ass and tell him to go steal second, eh?

Thats where the teleprompter was. McCain is rightfully getting a charge out of this.

[IDBillzFan]

Wow, what a bunch of cynics.

This administration finally takes a little shuffle in the right direction and everybody's all over them. I'm sure all the negative backlash will encourage them to move farther in the direction many of us have been begging them to go.

After struggling through a bad slump the guy finally slapped a seeing eye single to right; give him a little pat on the ass and tell him to go steal second, eh?

So this means he'll kill health care reform in its tracks, and take the initial $650 billion health care downpayment he budgeted -- an amount no longer needed for a program that is DOA -- and pay down debt? This means he'll kill the $80 billion jobs bill currently being put together? This means he'll take the balance of the $550 billion in unused stimulus and pay down the debt?

 

Of course not. But hey...he's REALLY gonna stop after this. Really. No kidding. This is it. No more spending from this point forward.

 

Face it. This is a last-minute attempt to give him something to discuss at his SOTU address (to appeal to independents) after failing miserably at his health care reform effort.

 

Frankly, I'm surprised at your defense. You finally have what you want: liberals and conservatives in complete agreement on something; this is freaking transparently stupid.

[DC Tom]

Wow, what a bunch of cynics.

This administration finally takes a little shuffle in the right direction and everybody's all over them. I'm sure all the negative backlash will encourage them to move farther in the direction many of us have been begging them to go.

After struggling through a bad slump the guy finally slapped a seeing eye single to right; give him a little pat on the ass and tell him to go steal second, eh?

 

It's called a "token gesture". All I can think to compare it to is my wife agreeing to be fiscally responsible and save a dollar every day by walking to the metro rather than taking the bus. And then going out and buying a new BMW anyway.

[murra]

Wow, what a bunch of cynics.

This administration finally takes a little shuffle in the right direction and everybody's all over them. I'm sure all the negative backlash will encourage them to move farther in the direction many of us have been begging them to go.

After struggling through a bad slump the guy finally slapped a seeing eye single to right; give him a little pat on the ass and tell him to go steal second, eh?

 

What exactly did he do that was a shuffle in the right direction? Did this administration not break spending records?

 

This is an extreme analogy (but then again you called our economic crash a "slump" so I don't think you'll mind) to help you understand:

 

Let's say there is a serial killer on the loose much like the sniper in D.C. a few years back. Let's say that he's going on his rampage, doin what serial killers do, and hasn't been caught. He then gets in contact with the police department and tells them he'll stop. He hasn't turned himself in, but he says he'll stop. Now, if I look at this and say, "holy crap, this dude's still on the loose!" am I a cynic? Is the appropriate response, "finally...a shuffle in the right direction"?

[erynthered]

 

Here's what he said.

[ExiledInIllinois]

It's called a "token gesture". All I can think to compare it to is my wife agreeing to be fiscally responsible and save a dollar every day by walking to the metro rather than taking the bus. And then going out and buying a new BMW anyway.

 

 

Dude, you may have some deep wifey issues there. Sure you should be posting on the board? I hope she isn't insisting on you making homemade wood stain. Screw that! If she can have a BMW, you should be able to spring for a can of Minwax.

 

[/dev/null]

It's called a "token gesture". All I can think to compare it to is my wife agreeing to be fiscally responsible and save a dollar every day by walking to the metro rather than taking the bus. And then going out and buying a new BMW anyway.

 

Another comparison I thought of are those old Geico commercial where something bad happens but then "I have good news, I just saved a ton of money on car insurance"

[KD in CA]

Wow, what a bunch of cynics.

This administration finally takes a little shuffle in the right direction and everybody's all over them. I'm sure all the negative backlash will encourage them to move farther in the direction many of us have been begging them to go.

After struggling through a bad slump the guy finally slapped a seeing eye single to right; give him a little pat on the ass and tell him to go steal second, eh?

 

I find it disingenuous to suddenly announce this after 12 months of drunken-sailor level spending proposals, and then specifically carve out 90% of federal spending as exempt from the plan.

 

Now if he said that all federal gov't agencies would have a hiring and salary freeze and all pension contributions for federal employees would be canceled for 2010, because that's what has happened to millions of private sector employees and everyone should be sharing the pain in this economic climate, I would be the first to applaud his efforts.

[ExiledInIllinois]

I find it disingenuous to suddenly announce this after 12 months of drunken-sailor level spending proposals, and then specifically carve out 90% of federal spending as exempt from the plan.

 

Now if he said that all federal gov't agencies would have a hiring and salary freeze and all pension contributions for federal employees would be canceled for 2010, because that's what has happened to millions of private sector employees and everyone should be sharing the pain in this economic climate, I would be the first to applaud his efforts.

 

 

Believe me, if the Asian carp have their way... I may be sharing the pain, collecting my pension! They just gotta stop moving for about 15 years (I will be 56).

 

 

Hey... Many in the private sector could have took public sector jobs... Yet, they want to go for the high salary, low risk job security. Sorry, I prioritized 20 years ago a lower hourly wage vs. higher job security.

 

Oh... Anyway, back to the fishy's... Even if (big IF) things change... My job will just get easier, I won't have to work these friggan' midnights chipping ice in the 10 degree darkness!

[GG]

Hey... Many in the private sector could have took public sector jobs... Yet, they want to go for the high salary, low risk job security. Sorry, I prioritized 20 years ago a lower hourly wage vs. higher job security.

 

Oh... Anyway, back to the fishy's... Even if (big IF) things change... My job will just get easier, I won't have to work these friggan' midnights chipping ice in the 10 degree darkness!

 

Here's an idea, why doesn't everybody get a job in the public sector?