President Obama made a big deal last week about his purported federal spending freeze, but not enough has been said about how meager the supposed savings actually are. Historical context shows that any savings from this public-relations gimmick will be tiny. Frugality, apparently, is a concept Democrats have a hard time understanding.
The Obama freeze is projected to "save" $15 billion from expected spending next year. This is not a cut of $15 billion in existing spending, but only a decision not to raise spending (to match inflation) on certain accounts. Those accounts supposedly are to be frozen for the following two years as well, but they are being frozen only after a decade-long spending orgy that included an 8.2 percent increase in domestic discretionary spending this year. And they don't apply to any new purported jobs bill or to any other new item on the president's priority list.
What the president is proposing has the aspect of a toddler putting a single foot beyond the water's edge at the beach for the very first time and then proudly reporting to everybody that he "swam in the ocean." If he really wants to swim with the economic tide, Mr. Obama should learn from the 1990s that government is not the engine of prosperity and that when it comes to saving taxpayer money, boldness works far better than puny half-measures.
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2 comments:
Now he's on a media blitz promoting himself instead of his policies when will this idiot learn he is not king he works for the people !
Yup,
Commit the government to unprecidented levels of wreckless spending and then claim you're going to freeze spending.
It is like Rosie O'Donnell going ordering 5 pizzas, 3 cheeseburgers, a 5 scope ice cream sunday, a large piece of apple pie and then a diet coke because she's on a diet.
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