President Barack Obama will fulfill his constitutional obligation as required by Article II, Section 3 this evening when he delivers his first official State of the Union Address.
Numerous news sources have already reported that he will propose a spending freeze on discretionary non-defense related spending. The news has U.S. Rep. Jim Himes warning local leaders about relying on federal dollars:
“We’re close to the end of the time when Congress is comfortable with the kind of Keynsian stimulus we have seen in the past year.”
Several groups are organizing State of the Union watch parties in Connecticut, including the offspring organization of the Obama 2008 campaign, Organizing for America. You can use their website to find a party near you.
3 responses so far ↓
Is ACORN having a party tonight?
More seriously, this spending “freeze” is a fraud. It applies to only 1/6 of the federal budget,. and it freezes the spending at levels greatly inflated by the Stimulus and other special expendittures. It’s like trading in the Toyota for a Rolls-Royce, and getting a new house in Greenwich, increasing monthly budget from $2,000 to $10,000, and then deciding the household is going into a “budget freeze.”
It’s a shell game, nothing more.
Speaking of Keynesian stimuli, this one is a riot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk
It’s for people who like rap but hate economics.
Vincent;
The wars on Afghanistan, Iraq and Terror cost $136 billion (off budget) in 2009. The 2010 defense budget (not including off-budget wars) will be $663 billion. I assume you believe this is off-limits to cuts. This is about 17% of the total budget.
Pension obligations, including payments to veterans, first responders in the federal system, and employees of the government, are aboug $1 trillion. How much of that obligation should we cut?
Health care is also a trillion or so, which of which 12% is the VA system (and climbing rapidly), and most of the balance is Medicare and Medicaid. Since those programs are roughly equal, half of that money goes to Seniors. As far as wastefraudabuse, I’d be curious to see how much that is really, and not in some fantasy.
Another trillion for education = kids and teaching good citizens how to get ready to have productive jobs. I would hope that you might find education a positive investment in our future. I know, wastefraudabuse!
The last and least interesting to your ilk is a roughly $600 billion budget on social welfare, be it HUD or unemployment benefits or food stamps. Great place to make sure everyone stands on their own two feet!
So–If you eliminate the notion of cutting for wars, guns, veterans, children and old people, and let everything else fall by the wayside, you are looking at almost exactly the current federal deficit or………1/6 of the budget.
Doens’t seem like a fraud to me, it seems like the basic social contract
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