Obama to Push 3-Year Spending Freeze on Non-Security Discretionary Spending

teabagobamaDidn’t John McCain suggest the exact same thing on the campaign trail (much like taxing Cadillac health care plans)? In 2008 a spending freeze was considered stupid Obama and the rest of the progressive media. I’d venture to say even racist. Yet as Obama and the Democrats approval ratings implode, suddenly Obama plans to propose a 3 year hard freeze on non-security discretionary spending, to last from 2011 through 2013 in his budget for Fiscal Year 2011. Oh also, foreign aide will not be a part of this spending freeze. This will be presented on Monday, February 1 according to ABC.

This will save $250 billion over the next decade, senior administration officials told reporters. By 2015, non-security discretionary spending will be at its lowest level as a component of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in 50 years.

The announcement will come at a time when the White House and Democrats are trying to deal with voters angry about a dysfunctional Washington, DC, with many concerned about the deficit and out-of-control government spending. The president and his team have said for months that he would address deficits in his State of the Union address, knowing that the massive spending in the Wall Street bailout and stimulus package would make many Americans uneasy, but the upset victory of Sen.-elect Scott Brown, R-Mass., underscored that concern.

Senior administration officials acknowledged that various government officials were already protesting the potential cuts and freezes in their budgets and favored projects, but wouldn’t go into detail.

“Tune in Monday” to see who protests after the budget is released, an official joked.

The base level of non-security discretionary spending for Fiscal Year 2010 is $477 billion. From 2011 through 2013, a senior administration official said, spending “will be no higher than that.”

The administration is defining security-related discretionary spending – which will not be impacted by this freeze – as spending related to the Pentagon, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security, and spending related to international affairs.

“We are at war and we’re going to make sure our troops are funded at an adequate level,” a senior administration official said.

This category – roughly one-seventh of the overall budget, or about 1/3rd of total discretionary spending — is generally what people think about when they say they want Washington, DC, to rein in spending, a senior administration official said. They don’t mean Medicare, Social Security, or defense spending, the official said.

In response to the announcement, Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, “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 ten? That’s the bottom line.”

This spending freeze does not apply across the board. Some agencies will see increases in spending during the three-year period, some will see decreases.

This was not a recent decision, officials insisted. “The numbers have been locked in for weeks,” and the budget has been at the printers since before the Massachusetts special election that sent shockwaves through the political world, officials said.

The officials acknowledged that the bigger issues dealt with the growth of entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and this wouldn’t solve the nation’s deficit issues.

“From a macro-economic perspective, we don’t think this will have a huge effect,” an official said.

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January 25, 2010 · Filed Under General Politics


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