[tomder55]

During the campaign candidate Obama mocked Sen McCain's proposals for having a spending freeze for budget balancing . Obama said the budget required a scalpel and not a hatchet.

Now hours before his State of the Union Address ;and clearly reacting to the election results in the Massachusetts special election for Senator,the President is proposing a spending freeze . Is this part of that on the job training ?

But a closer examination of this proposal reveals that his proposal is so much more smoke an mirrors.

The spending freeze, expected to be proposed by Obama during the State of the Union address on Wednesday, would apply to a relatively small portion of the federal budget, affecting a $477 billion pot of money available for domestic agencies whose budgets are approved by Congress each year. Some of those agencies could get increases, others would have to face cuts; such programs got an almost 10 percent increase this year. The federal budget total was $3.5 trillion.

CBO: Federal Deficit Projected at $1.35T - ABC News

The truth is that this is neither a hatchet or a scalpel. It's more like a plastic butter knife. You can add his “Hard Freeze” rhetoric in the scrap heap alongside that special bi-partisan committee he proposed for making deficit reduction proposals that apparently both sides of the aisle objected to . From his own side Harry Reid replied that he does not agree with a spending freeze. Charlie Rangel Chair of the Ways and Means, does not agree with the freeze. And to put a cherry on top,the liberal bloggers are going nuts .

Further ;it is far from an across the board freeze ,as is being claimed. Among the exempt budget items are all entitlement programs, unspent bucket list stimulus money is exempt and many of the President's favorite pet projects are exempt.

The truth is that the President and his cohorts in Congress have already jacked up discretionary spending beyond what he is proposing the freeze. His proposal affects 3% of new expenditures already budgeted. This “freeze” is only coming after huge budget increases in 2009 that doubled the size of discretionary spending .His austerity measures still amount to huge budget increases.

McCain for his part is foolishly going along with this charade which will give the President bi-partisan cover for this smoke and mirror game. McCain faces a primary challenge this year by former Congressman JD Hayworth. It's time for McCain gracefully retire.

[NeedKarma]

What's your question? This isn't a blog.

[speechlesstx]

Bush I offered us a "flexible freeze' which Dukakis responded to as an “economic slurpee.” Now Obama is offering us his own economic slurpee.

[speechlesstx]

What's your question? This isn't a blog.

No, it's a "discussion" board. Btw, love your new avatar.

[tomder55]

NK has been promoted from being the site unofficial vetter of sources to it's unofficial vetter of content.

[NeedKarma]

We all have a job to do!

[speechlesstx]

Obama and Biden will begin the new era of spending freezes by visiting Florida tomorrow to announce $8 billion in stimulus grants for his rail corridors. The first of which will presumably be the Tampa-Orlando corridor at a cost of $2.5 billion will create (or save?) 15,000 jobs and zoom passengers from one to the other in less than an hour.

It takes roughly and hour and 22 minutes to drive the 84 miles according to Google Maps, roughly $6.50 worth of gas in my Corolla. I'm sure this is a too big to fail project so line up to get your job in high speed rail service.

[tomder55]

If that's true it's insane . Orlando and Tampa are almost twin cities. Plus, as I have noted elsewhere ;AMTRACK is a loser.
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/curren...ts-429274.html

Biden made a big deal about his AMTRACK commutes while a candidate . But he rode on one of the few lines that makes a slight profit . If rail service between the 2 cities was viable then it would've already been in service.
You want some real positive budget control ? Sell the various AMTRACK components to private lines;or lease it to someone who actually knows how to run a railroad .

[speechlesstx]

Oh it's true, sorry I omitted a link.

[speechlesstx]

The noted deficit hawk Obama came out with his budget today. Fortunately, Jim Treacher provides an easy guide:

A simple five-step process for understanding the deficit and people’s reactions to it

1) Read a story on the Obama administration’s pledge to reduce the deficit. Pay special attention to quotes like this:

“We wanted to draw a line in the sand and enforce some discipline in the spending process,” White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said.

2) Say: “Wow, they sure are spending a lot. Why didn’t they reduce it by not increasing it so much in the first place? I’m no economist or anything, but I’m not so sure I like this whole deal.”

3) Listen to Obama defender screech: “HOW COME YOU NEVER COMPLAINED ABOUT BUSH’S SPENDING, WINGNUT???”

4) Show the Obama defender this graph, courtesy of the Congressional Budget Office:



5) Repeat as needed, i.e. every single time it comes up.

[paraclete]

The noted deficit hawk Obama came out with his budget today.]:

That's a nice graph, now if we could just see the actual figures for '09 we would have some idea of how much BS is in it. I'll take bets right now it exceeds the estimate

[tomder55]

All I know is spending has tripled in a year. But the President still continues to insist that he inheritted it.

[tomder55]

To date Scott Brown has not been sworn in as Senator . The latest news is that Reid et al have no plans to do so until Feb 11 ;giving them almost a month of a fillibuster busting ;cram that agenda down our throats super majority after the election of Brown.

I am not aware of any reason for this delay except for perhaps a last minute push to get Obamacare passed .

They already passed an increase in the debt ceiling by 60 votes ;a vote that Brown would've certainly opposed Former Senator Paul Kirk provided the determining vote .
Why Is Senator Kirk Still Voting on Legislation? - Big Government