In
the upcoming State of the Union address, president Obama will
propose a three-year freeze on federal funding
not related to national security, a policy that will barely
dent the national deficit and one that John McCain proposed,
and then-Senator Obama rubbished, less than eighteen months
ago.
Over three different presidential debates, candidate Obama
actively campaigned against the policy president Obama will
now implement, referring to the notion of an all out spending
freeze as using a "hatchet" when a "scalpel"
is necessary.
"The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a
hatchet where you need a scalpel," Obama said in his first
presidential debate against McCain in September 2008. "There
are some programs that are very important that are underfunded."
In the second debate, Obama said, "We may have to cut
some spending, although I disagree with Senator McCain about
an across-the-board freeze. That's an example of an unfair burden
share. That's using a hatchet to cut the federal budget, I want
to use a scalpel, so that people who need help are getting help."
"We do have a disagreement about across-the-board spending
freeze. It sounds good, it's proposed periodically. It doesn't
happen." Obama added in the third debate.
"And in fact an across-the-board spending freeze is a
hatchet and we do need a scalpel because there are some programs
that don't work at all. There are some programs that are underfunded
and I want to make sure that we are focused on those programs
that work," Obama said.
Watch the video:
An all out spending freeze will see between $10-15 billion
shaved off next year's budget, a drop in the ocean when you
consider that the national deficit is projected
to exceed $1 trillion for the third year running,
with $9 trillion forecasted to be added to the national debt
over the next decade.
The freeze, which will take effect in October, will affect
only about one-eighth of the nation's $3.5 trillion budget.
Of course, the freeze will not affect the budgets of the military
or homeland security, neither will it restrain funding for the
$787 billion economic stimulus package.
Instead the policy will punish less sprawling domestic agencies
by freezing their budgets to accommodate the expansion of the
illegal wars, the domestic police state and the bailing out
of offshore banks.
The freeze is also unlikely to affect the approximately $900
billion health-care bill, according to senior administration
officials who revealed unpublished details on condition of anonymity.
"Given Washington Democrats' unprecedented spending binge,
this is like announcing you're going on a diet after winning
a pie-eating contest," said Michael Steel, spokesman for
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).
It's not just conservatives who have a problem with the proposed
freeze. One of Obama's leading liberal economic advisors, Paul
Krugman, has fiercely
criticized the move, referring to it as "appalling
on every level".
"And it’s a betrayal of everything Obama’s
supporters thought they were working for." Krugman writes,
"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. A correspondent
writes, 'I feel like an idiot for supporting this guy.'"
In
the upcoming State of the Union address, president Obama 