Posted on 01/26/2011 7:49:39 AM PST by jda
In the SOTU Address, the President proposed to "freeze" discretionary spending for the next 5 years. What did he mean???
There are two types of government spending: mandatory and discretionary.
Mandatory spending is authorized by permanent legislation, is under the jurisdiction of authorizing committees, accounts for approximately two-thirds of the budget and includes entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, and Food Stamps.
Discretionary spending is appropriated by Congress annually, is under the jurisdiction of the appropriations committees, accounts for approximately one-third of the budget, and includes money for defense (the largest portion), global war on terror, homeland security, DoE, DoA, EPA, NSF. etc.
Total discretionary spending in the 2009 budget (submitted by Bush) was $1.21 trillion, a 4.9% increase over 2008. Total discretionary spending in the 2010 budget (sibmitted by Obama) was $2.467 trillion, a 30.58% increase over 2010.
So, our Pretender-in-Chief is proposing to freeze approximately one-third of the budget, but that one-third is already increased over 30% from 2009. Excluding the security-related, non-freeze portion (assumed to include DoD), he is really only proposing to freeze less than 10% of the budget.
And, that 10% includes transportation, in which he plans to "invest" (e.g., increase spending). So, it appears that he is proposing to increase transportation spending at the expense of other non-security related discretionary budget items.
Bottom line (when you read between the lines): let's freeze 10% of the budget to get our economy back on track and generate jobs.
It's all smoke and mirrors! No Substance! They just don't get it! Is it 2012 yet???
He’s going to put the budget in William Jefferson’s freezer.
It’s the old bait and switch game.
Here in New York, the state government imposed a “hiring freeze,” during the course of which they hired more than 50,000 people.
How to break a country:
Raise spending to include huge payoffs to your political/ideological buddies.
FREEZE spending. Guarantees your buddies continue to get paid.
A freeze is temporary, a budget cut is more permanent and forces politicians to come back and justify why they want to increase the budget. This guy is a fool for trying to fool the people.
He’s locking in all the pork and political payback he’s signed in the last two years.
I’ll bet security related also includes DHS, FBI, ATF etc. so the proposed freeze would be even smaller.
Now that he’s run spending up to absurd levels, he wants to “freeze” it there. IOW, he wants no cuts.
He is worse than Carter.
When family spending is out of control and you are going broke...you don't freeze spending where it is.
YOU CUT IT TOO THE BONE!
He seems to be succeeding with a large number of people, his poll numbers are climbing again. *sigh*
“No earmarks”
We’ve heard that before. http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/02/oops_obama_breaks_campaign_noe.asp
Like Clinton, if his (purple) lips are moving, he’s lying.
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