Some Reactions President Obama’s Discretionary Spending Freeze
President Obama has already increased yearly discretionary spending by…
- $40 billion increase in FY 2009
- $100 billion increase in FY 2010
- $140 billion total increase in annual discretionary spending (or $1.4 trillion over ten years)
Now, President Obama is suggesting a “freeze” on certain discretionary spending to “save” $250 billion over ten years.
This leaves us with a net increase of $1.2 trillion in just discretionary spending over the next ten years (according to Karl Rove).
Meanwhile, President Obama’s suggested “freeze” does not include entitlement programs (such as Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security), does not include President Obama’s second stimulus plan ($156 billion) currently being considered in Congress, does not include the roughly $512 billion in unspent money from President Obama’s first “stimulus,” and it does not include the $1 trillion government healthcare takeover.
According to the New York Times…
“The estimated $250 billion in savings over 10 years would be less than 3% of the roughly $9 trillion in additional deficits the government is expected to accumulate over that time.”
According to the Heritage Foundation, public held debt is likely to increase even more over the next decade.
Watch Charles Krauthammer’s Response
Posted: January 27th, 2010 under Economics, News, Newsworthy.
Comments: (2) | Print This Post
Interesting that we never heard a peep from conservatives about discretionary spending under G.W. Bush. For instance, take a look at the article and chart here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/20767.html
You also failed to mention the biggest category of spending which will be left untouched by Obama’s freeze, which is of course military spending. As another Glenn (Greenwald) recently put it, “The U.S. spends almost as much on military spending as the entire rest of the world combined, and spends roughly six times more than the second-largest spender, China. Even as the U.S. sunk under increasingly crippling levels of debt over the last decade, defense spending rose steadily, sometimes precipitously. That explosion occurred even as overall military spending in the rest of the world decreased, thus expanding the already-vast gap between our expenditures and the world’s. As one “defense” spending watchdog group put it: ‘The US military budget was almost 29 times as large as the combined spending of the six ‘rogue’ states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) who spent $14.65 billion.’ ”
Remember the Republican President who warned of a military-industrial complex? I didn’t think so…
Wait, Frank, are you saying that President Obama SHOULD include defense spending in his proposed “freeze?” I think the context of the above paragraph is to indicate that many DOMESTIC SOCIAL PROGRAMS will continue to grow, and result in subsequent increases in yearly base-line spending. By the way, the Heritage chart above does include projected increases in defense spending. The U.S. does spend a lot on its military, which is why we have the best trained, best equipped, and most capable military in the world. Just look at how fast they were able to mobilize for Haitian relief… even while continuing to wage several fronts in the War on Terror. This kind of ability (flexibility) is not cheap and is unique to the U.S. military. But we do spend more on Social Security & Medicare, Education, and means-tested welfare each year than we spend on national defense (see http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/sr0067.cfm).
As far as conservatives complaining about President Bush’s discretionary spending, you simply were not listening. Many conservatives challenged Bush to cut his spending. This is precisely why his approval ratings fell so much between 2005 and 2008 within the conservative base. Clark Judge, one of Glen’s guests on his radio program this past weekend touched on this very topic. According to Judge, moderate and conservative voters were disgusted with Bush’s spending, which is why some of them either stayed home or voted for President Obama in 2008. Of course, these same voters are also disgusted with Obama’s increased spending. But Judge continues by stating that the GOP will NOT do as well as they think in 2010 if they do not address spending issues NOW. Judge mentioned a recent article that he published in the Wall Street Journal called “10 Tips for the GOP in 2010.” Glen embedded the link at http://glenmeakem.com/2010/01/25/january-23-24-%e2%80%93-happy-anniversary-mr-president/. But it can also be found here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704842604574642440064128138.html. Finally, I love the graph you linked to above. It does not include so-called “entitlement spending” which is so expensive. It also does not include how the Obama Administration compares with these past Presidents. Check out this chart for fun http://www.heritage.org/Research/Features/BudgetChartbook/Obama-Budget-Would-Create-Unprecedented-Deficits.aspx
If Pres. Obama really wants to cut spending, than he should use the unspent stimulus money and repaid TARP funds to reduce the deficit. He should also stop trying to push a third stimulus. Remember, Pres. Bush issued the first failed stimulus in February 2008 ($200 billion). The February 2009 stimulus also failed ($787 billion).
Bottom line for me is that Pres. Bush spent too much during his 8 years in office. After 1 year in office, Pres. Obama has already spent 4X too much, and is threatening to spend more still, even while he proposes a spending “freeze.”