Spending freeze could leave Obama out in the cold

Obama Spending Freeze

President Barack Obama looks set to call for a three-year spending freeze aimed at reining in America's ever increasing budget deficit.

The deficit now stands at $1.4 trillion with Obama facing fierce criticism for the amount of government spending since taking office just over a year ago. Much of the spending was a result of his $800 billion economic stimulus package that was intended to heave the US out of recession, and whereas this was a bitter pill to swallow because of how much it added to the nation's deficit, many analysts feel the economic infrastructure could have totally collapsed without it.

Officials say the proposal would be a major component both of Obama's State of the Union address on Wednesday and of the budget he will send to Congress next week for the fiscal year that begins in October.

$250 billion taken off the deficit

The freeze would cover the agencies and programs for which Congress allocates specific budgets each year, including air traffic control, farm subsidies, education, nutrition and national parks.

Security and defence spending, foreign aid, social security and spending on health care for the poor and retired would be exempt.

However the Washington Post reports this will shave no more than $15 billion off next year's projected deficit of well above $1 trillion. Over the next decade however, President Obama insists the move could see a further $250 billion taken off the deficit.

There are plenty of political risks as well as potential benefits to this decision.

Obama plans to leave military spending untouched, appeasing many of those on the right and even some in the Republican camp. Yet the freeze will leave many popular domestic programs vulnerable. This will upset senior liberal Democrats in Congress who are already disillusioned by the possible collapse of the health reform bill and the recent deployment of even more troops in Afghanistan.

A family in tough times

But one administration official said it was like a family in tough times deciding on its budget.

"That's the decision-making process the president and the economic team went through," Associated Press quoted the unnamed official as saying.

"It's the very same process American families have gone through for the past several years," he added.

So in conclusion, many people are criticising the spending freeze for the programs and policies it may place in danger, but others (mostly Republicans) are critical of the cut for not being sufficient enough.

But cuts had to be made somewhere. Heavy initial outlays were highly necessary to avoid economic catastrophe in the US, but as Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, puts it, "given Washington Democrats' unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you're going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest."

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