« Dick Morris: Pelosi and Reid Plot Secret Plan for Obamacare | Main | Chief of Staff Draws Fire From Left as Obama Falters »
January 27, 2010
Charles Krauthammer on President Obama’s Proposed Budget Cuts
Obama to seek freeze on part of budget
Facing voter anger over mounting budget deficits, President Barack Obama will ask Congress to freeze spending for some domestic programs for three years beginning in 2011, administration officials said Monday. Separately, Obama unveiled plans to help a middle class "under assault" pay its bills, save for retirement and care for kids and aging parents.
The spending freeze would apply to a relatively small portion of the federal budget, affecting a $477 billion pot of money available for domestic agencies whose budgets are approved by Congress each year. Some of those agencies could get increases, others would have to face cuts; such programs got an almost 10 percent increase this year. The federal budget total was $3.5 trillion.
.
Charles Krauthammer on President Obama’s proposed budget cuts:
“It’s not a hatchet. It’s not a scalpel. It’s a Q-tip. It’s a fraud. This is a minuscule amount. Remember it excludes defense, homeland security, veteran’s affairs. It excludes all of the entitlements which are 60% of the budget. And, it excludes stimuli past and future, the nearly two-thirds of the trillion dollar stimulus that has not been spent. All of that is excluded. It excludes the trillion that would have been spent on health care if it would have been passed. What it is is a $15 billion reduction in a year 2011 in which the CBO has just announced we’re going to have a deficit of $1.35 trillion. It’s a rounding error. It’s lunch money.”
.
Krauthammer:
"What he doesn't tell you is that last year, their first year in office when they had a free ride in spending, they ratcheted up the spending for all of these departments astronomically an average of the last half of fiscal '09 and all of fiscal '10 an average about 20%, now that's huge 'cause normally year over year you increase a department's spending 3% or 4% especially with low inflation.
So for example, last year alone, they increased the EPA budget by 35%, so if you're instituting a freeze, what you're doing, you're ratcheting in, you're locking in the higher spending that Obama slid in last year...So what the freeze is doing essentially is the opposite of what it looks like, instead of reducing the spending, it's locking in these huge increases that were instituted last year"
.
Wild Thing's comment........
This is a joke. They guy really thinks people are THAT stupid. He will save a few billion while working to borrow and spending another trillion....hello????
Is the whole DemoRAT party going to walk off the cliff with this “Carter-FDR hybrid on steroids”?
More lies, prevarication, and sleight of hand. The Hope N Change express keeps on rolling. More like the Hypocrisy Express!
Posted by Wild Thing at January 27, 2010 05:40 AM
Comments
What many retail stores do is raise the price of an item, especially a high dollar item. When it doesn't sell, they announce a big sale of this particular item, lowering the price to what it sold for before they raised the price. People will then flock to the store to buy the item on sale and "save money". What they don't realize is the sale price they paid today was the walk in price last month. Retailers know that people are generally stupid when it comes to money. It seems Obama knows this too.
Posted by: BobF at January 27, 2010 08:11 AM
He either believes that the people don't know the difference between a Billion and a Trillion or he thinks they are just plain stupid.
The proposed budget cut is 250 Billion over 10 years or 25 Billion per year. Which would cover the interest on the National debt for a month. Depending how much he borrows for additional spending this amount becomes even smaller. Right now 25 Billion is about 3%. So much for a freeze on spending. This whole project is a study in futility supported by a carnival of smoke and mirrors.
Posted by: Mark at January 27, 2010 09:04 AM
As usual Charles Krauthammer explains what is really happening. obama is pulling a scam with his "spending cuts". His healthcare bill will be the same kind of scam. obama considers the American public way below his pay grade in intelligence. I don't know if he realizes that his veneer has worn off and many of his former supporters are now turning against him.
Posted by: TomR at January 27, 2010 01:43 PM
Sir Charles knocks another one out of the park.
Posted by: Eddie (Enemy of the State) at January 27, 2010 05:36 PM
Tom, interesting point. I have a funny feeling too that Obama's ego and his mental state won't even allow him to accept how much he is bey9ond disliked and not trusted for our country.
Thanks everyone so much.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 28, 2010 12:08 AM
