Obama to annouce spending Freeze

[brettdale]

But not for the Penatagon or homeland sercuity?

Good or bad???

[DJ13]

1. Really really bad

You dont tie your hands on spending in the middle of a deep recession.

[Donnachaidh]

3. domestic programs -- the ones that help the poor and unemployed?

Yeah -- he really *got* the message in Massachusetts didn't he?

[Junkdrawer]

2. To "Cut the Deficit" he can do three things:

1.) Raise Taxes

2.) Cut Military Spending

3.) Cut Entitlements

My guess? So much for SS and the Trust Fund.

[Arctic Dave]

4. What is with all the "spending freeze" threads?

If he does this, he can pretty much consider himself a one term president.

[Obamanaut]

7. One 'change you can believe in' is I'm going back to my old screen

name at the next name change amnesty.

[fasttense]

5. Isn't that what McCain said he would do in the campaign

And didn't Obama argue that a spending freeze in the middle of a "supposed" recession was dangerous or something?

[bigtree]

11. here

MCCAIN: OK, what -- what would I cut? I would have, first of all, across-the-board spending freeze, OK? Some people say that's a hatchet. That's a hatchet, and then I would get out a scalpel, OK?


OBAMA: Well, look, I think that we do have a disagreement about an across-the-board spending freeze. It sounds good. It's proposed periodically. It doesn't happen.

And, in fact, an across-the-board spending freeze is a hatchet, and we do need a scalpel, because there are some programs that don't work at all. There are some programs that are underfunded. And I want to make sure that we are focused on those programs that work.

. . . I do want to just point out that autism, for example, or other special needs will require some additional funding, if we're going to get serious in terms of research. That is something that every family that advocates on behalf of disabled children talk about.

And if we have an across-the-board spending freeze, we're not going to be able to do it. That's an example of, I think, the kind of use of the scalpel that we want to make sure that we're funding some of those programs.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/10/debate-transcri.html

[timeforpeace]

6. OMG. He's going to try to out-republican the Republicans.

[Generator]

21. Yes, but he doesn't have the nasty, mean, evil and crazy part

down just yet. Maybe next term.

[NeoConsSuck]

23. Bingo!

and that is why no military cuts. But of course, voters would vote for a real Republican before a pretend Republican.

[bigtree]

8. billions for war and industry

. . . a miserly pittance for everything else.

[PSzymeczek]

9. Bad.

The Pentagon is way overdue for a budgetary hit.

[Skittles]

10. fucking ridiculous

[lib2DaBone]

12. Obama doesn't care if he is a one term president....

Goldman Sachs has his position all lined up and waiting for him in 2012. He and his family will be just fine.

[krabigirl]

20. This is going to hurt the midterms more than 2012.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Plan de Austeridad, that is the other name

Austerity Plan... welcome to our nightmare...

Oh and THIS is what disaster capitalism looks like

[arcadian]

34. Austerlitz? More like Waterloo.

[Terra Alta]

14. this just keeps getting worse and worse

it almost sounds like Obama WANTS to lose in 2012...

*sigh*

[calico1]

15. I made the same comment on another thread.

Does look like it, doesn't it? It's like he is going out of his way to piss off as many people as he can.

And it's working.

[amborin]

16. $57,000 per minute plus:

War-fighting funds requested by the Obama administration for 2010: $68 billion (a figure which will, for the first time since 2003, exceed funds requested for Iraq).

Funds recently requested by U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry for non-military spending in Afghanistan, 2010: $2.5 billion.

Funds spent since 2001 on Afghan "reconstruction": $38 billion ("more than half of it on training and equipping Afghan security forces").

Percentage of U.S. funding in Afghanistan that has gone for military purposes: Nearly 90%.

Estimated U.S. funds needed to support and upgrade Afghan forces for the next decade: $4 billion a year ("with a like sum for development") according to former Assistant Secretary of Defense Bing West. (According to the Brookings Institution's Michael O'Hanlon, "It's a reasonable guess that for 20 years, we essentially will have to fund half the Afghan budget.")

Afghan gross national product: $23 billion ("the size of Boise" Idaho's, writes columnist George Will) — about $3 billion of it from opium production.

Annual budget of the Afghan government: $600 million.

Maintenance cost for the force of 450,000 Afghan soldiers and police U.S. generals dream of creating: approximately 500% of the Afghan budget.

Amount spent on police "mentoring and training" since 2001: $10 billion.

Percentage of the more than 400 Afghan National Police units "still incapable of running their operations independently": 75% (2008 figures).

Cost of the latest upgrade of Bagram Air Base (an old Soviet base that has become the largest American base in Afghanistan): $220 million.

Cost of a single recent Pentagon contract to DynCorp International Inc. and Fluor Corporation "to build and support U.S. military bases throughout Afghanistan": up to $15 billion


mother jones

[earth mom]

17. So Obama & Co has spent all our money on the Wars and now there's nothing left?

Not surprised.

Pissed off, but not surprised. :grr:

[Canuckistanian]

18. Doesn't that cancel out the idea behind the stimulus?

Why is he even considering this?

[krabigirl]

19. Like a previous poster said, this was what McCain planned to do.

sigh

[reformist]

22. His hands might be tied.

There's a good chance Obama might have been told by our creditors (read: our friends the Chinese) that they aren't going to finance our $1 trillion deficits anymore if we don't start showing some fiscal responsibility. If this is what is happening behind the scenes, then Obama would only have two choices: raise taxes, or freeze spending. We may end up having to do both.

[Odin2005]

35. The Chinese can go fuck themselves.

What are they gonna do? Invade us and demand payment? HA!!! If we had a leader with a spine he/she would tell the Chinese "tough luck, you ain't getting your money back".

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. Though it is suicidal you should know the Chinese do

have a military.

That said, this is not the way the game's played. There is another way to skin this cat. Google reserve currency and what happens when you lose that status. They have been floating that for close to two years now.

Oh and by the way, the fourth turning, the crisis is here.

[Odin2005]

41. "the crisis is here" I know.

:hi:

[dflprincess]

37. We could save a bundle of money if we stopped spending on endless wars

but you'll notice only "domestic spending" - the kind that might help people and provide jobs here if we invest in infrastructure is all that's being talked about.

[patrice]

24. "We" wanted war, now we will learn what it means to pay the piper.

[flyarm]

25. absolutely horrible for the middle class..seems like there is nothing but an attack on the middle

class!

What we are hearing as teasers here in Tampa ..Obama will be coming here with Biden the day after the SOTU address..the teaser is that he will be giving money to build the rapid train or Bullet train from Tampa to Orlando..

Is it true?..I don't know but that is what our local TV has been saying all week.

Just who will this benefit?? I just wonder..

[Dinger]

26. Voters To Announce Voting Freeze

That is all.

[flyarm]

27. no shit!! +10,million!

[Dinger]

28. Awwwwwww

:hug: :pals:

[timeforpeace]

29. Excellent post.

[Dinger]

44. Thank You

:) :hi:

[amborin]

30. now that Banksters got theirs!

[FarCenter]

31. Bad -- he should cut the military too.

[thatsrightimirish]

32. Remember when we were laughing at the Republicans about this idea?

I'll wait for more details, but I am extremely skeptical. When I read those "wasteful spending" lists many of them are from the Department of Homeland Security.

[Odin2005]

33. FUCK THAT SHIT! Stick a fork in Obama, I'm done with him.

Just another corporatist tool.

[SlingBlade]

36. Rachel Maddow called it Hooverisum....

Well, Now we know for sure after the MA. election that this administration
IS NOT turning to the LEFT, But actually going even FURTHER to the RIGHT.
Watch the spin here by Bidens Boy....

Maddows Link Here

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908#35069615

[blues90]

38. Maybe Obama should stop spending .

How about that, , he wants to fund more war, he funds this big staff and expanded government and he flys all over the globe does nothing and had alllt eh perks one can imagine. How does one think this sets with americans who are in poverty , do you think they like it?

[KamaAina]

40. Change you can believe in*

*-as long as you're part of the military-industrial complex or its bratty little brother, the terrorism-industrial complex. :grr: :banghead:

[AzDar]

42. Stupid political WHORING.

:grr:

[TexasObserver]

43. Gates, McChrystal, Geithner, Bernanke, Summers ....

Sometimes I feel as if I only dreamed that we won in 2008.

The president has lost his way, and unless he comes home to Democratic ideals and constituencies, he's ten months from becoming a lame duck.