Obama spending freeze: Is it doable?

Spending freeze and pessimism

Sometimes it seems like the president just can’t win. For his first year in office, everyone  said he was spending too much. Now that President Barack Obama has announced a spending freeze, Republicans are saying that’s impossible. Democrats are saying he’s pandering to Republicans.

We elected the guy. Don’t you think, to an extent, maybe we should just trust him? Apparently that’s not the American way. Don’t get me wrong; I think a certain level of skepticism is healthy. But I get sick of the whining. Kind of like when people can’t pay back their payday loans, and the direct lender gets blamed instead of the borrower’s poor budgeting.

Conditions to Obama’s spending freeze

Obama’s spending freeze will last until the end of his current term — three years. It isn’t a complete freeze; he says he still will allow military spending. Of course, he’ll talk about this in his State of the Union address tomorrow, and I am sure there will be more exceptions to Obama’s spending freeze. Maybe once he explains the details people will calm down, but for now it appears that pretty much everyone has a problem with it.

Obama says the spending freeze will save $250 million over the next three years, and exactly how it will work will be detailed Feb. 1 when he unveils the budget. The one good thing I have read about Obama’s spending freeze is Kristi Keck from CNN’s comment that Obama’s spending freeze “could help him recapture the favor of centrist voters.”

Negative press

To those who are dismissing Obama’s spending freeze as impossible, I quote Keck again, who points out that this is “a partial, three-year freeze on discretionary spending.” So that doesn’t sound so hard, does it? Still, there’s no shortage of quotes like this one from CNBC:

“This is like announcing you’re going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House of Representatives Republican leader John Boehner.