Shades of 1937? Obama to Announce Three-Year Spending Freeze in State of the Union
Oh yes, the deficit hawks are circling. Obama's decided to throw them some fresh meat in his State of the Union address -- and since he's ruled out cuts in defense spending, this money will come from someplace else.
According to Jared Bernstein, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, this won't be as bad as it sounds: "No stupid Hooverism around here." While I can't help but wonder if this will be taken from the programs that serve the neediest (since those are the constituencies without powerful political backers) he says this will be targeted to specific waste.
Well, we'll see. Maybe this is just political theater, where Obama "proves" he can stand up to liberals. (Krugman says it looks like "pure disaster.")
I just have to wonder if he'd do this without getting some concessions in return from the Blue Dogs. We do know it'll make Evan Bayh happy, and that's what's important!
WASHINGTON -- 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.
The three-year plan will be part of the budget Obama will submit Feb. 1, senior administration officials said, commenting on condition of anonymity to reveal private details.
The Pentagon, veterans programs, foreign aid and the Homeland Security Department would be exempt from the freeze.
What a difference a year makes!
... get a tidy sum for selling Timmy Geithner's soul to the devil.
Wait. Never mind. Too late.
and realizing that the only thing better than having a Republican president is having a Democratic president who is carrying out your agenda, entrenching your policies and condoning all the illegal stuff the last Republican president did?
and unpossible. I am still getting emails from republican friends in the south about how Obama is turning America into a socialist country, one world order, etc.
He has a (D) beside his name. If he changed it to an (R) then that would change everything.
what else they going to think?
we voted for? Is this really him? Takes stands on things that seemingly don't affect middle america. Lip service continues...faith draining fast.
... as a voter, I got suckered.
At the same time, the system is clearly broken/corrupted. Obama has gotten jack shit nothing in support from the Compromise Twins. Geithner has proven himself to be part of the problem, not the solution. And we're still saddled with W's appointments to the Supreme Court.
If he trots out a fresh coat of paint on the Change dog and pony show, I think I'll donate $100 to SarahPAC. Can't be disappointed when you already know Geezer/Dingbat would have been totally incompetent.
We absolutely got suckered.
No worries, it can and will get worse. Barring some dark horse coming out of nowhere (not likely in the controlled political environment we live in) take a look at the potential candidates for President on both sides of the aisle.
A veritable who's who of mediocrity and easily controlled tools.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Oh, you mean "politicians"...
!!
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
This is why I voted against him in the primaries and why I held my nose when voting for him for President. He is not, nor has he ever been, the great liberal hope so many wanted him to be. He has failed liberals on so many levels, its not even funny.
We need a true liberal in the White House, its just too bad I will probably never see one in my lifetime.
Election 2012: Be Educated! Be Active! Vote!
www.PhoenixJustice.com
... just threw his lantern down in disgust and went off to sit in the dark.
I thought for a minute you meant:
http://www.lambiek.net/artists/n/nodell_marti...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://gedblog.com/wp-content/uploads/GhostOf...
http://www.trueghosttales.com/ghost-pictures-...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3h4o5AiLuM
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
from a policy or political angle. As hard as Obama tried to avoid the Clinton administration "mistake" in pursuing health care reform, he now looks like he is embracing the Clinton strategy following that in 1993 without either losing Congress or the health care reform yet.
I think Nate Silver captures my thoughts quite well.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/01/white-...
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
One of the Clinton mistakes in attempting to get health "reform" passed ... was trying to do it in exactly the way it's being done now. Republicans don't like it because it spends money on anything other than tax breaks, and Democrats don't like it because it's either giving too much or too little money to their buddies in the insurance industry.
Really ... it was a piss-poor idea the first time around, what made anyone think it would work in virtually the same form this time?
This coming from the last industrialized nation to still have a "get-fucked" model of pay-for-play healthcare.
The piss poor idea was the privatization of healthcare to begin with.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Agreed. When you can't add value to a proposition, it's not a good idea for the private sector to be involved at all.
Let the orgy of private companies feeding at the public trough begin. :(
Damn those founding fathers. We shoulda stuck with King George. We'd have Lizzie and Chuck now plus oodles of free health care. We could almost be Canadian. Then we would just be stuck in Afghanistan.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
but I don't think it mirrors the mistakes of 1937. This isn't a depression and the deficit situation is much more serious. It will have to addressed at some point but this is a little soon.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Try telling that to people living in Tent City's.
In today's economy, we deficit spend far, far more than that each year.
Also what Rachel is missing (and Krugman ignores)
What Hoover did to make things worse
So there are some big differences, and Hoover was not a do nothing president, he did intervene in worst way possible.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
"WWII brought us out of the depression because the world traded it's gold for weapons" Krugman definitely does *not* ignore, although he doesn't phrase it that way.
From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/opinion/16k..., I quote:
The the fact we didn't have $12 trillion in debt, we had a 40% gold exchange standard. He doesn't spend much time talking about Hoover's bad intervention polices, rather he lets the do nothing stigma on Hoover get perpetuated. True he does acknowledge that WWII brought us out of the depression. I should have placed that in a different area.
As for gold being exchanged for weapons, Krugman said nothing on this in either direction. Gold was the primary means of the Allies paying for weapons from the US under the "Cash and Carry" act, there is a lot of information on it out on the Internet.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
He didn't mention gold specifically, but does give his theory of how WWII ended the great depression and eventually fed into the "post-war boom". As for the gold standard and Krugman's dislike for it, Robert Murphy explains his unusual agreement with Krugman here : http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article15031.html
I was only trying to point out that he wasn't specifically omitting these points, but rather covering them in a different fashion. He's not an imbecile, just merely has a contrary point of view to the one you have, from what I can figure.
but that doesn't change the fact we were on a 40% gold exchange standard in the 30's. The dollar was pegged to gold then. The dollar became the reserve currency because the dollar was backed by gold. The entire world pegged their currency to the dollar because the dollar was "good as gold", that is where that term came from.
When Nixon detached us from gold in 1971 (all on his own) with the stroke of pen our currency and the entire world along with it became a fiat currency. It's Latin meaning "let it be done". The reason Nixon did this was because France was emptying our vaults of gold as repayment for Vietnam, they believed we would not be able to pay it back.
Guess what? They we're right, we have yet to pay for Vietnam. Nixon's detachment from gold was basically the same think as filing for bankruptcy. Gold is money, and the proof is in the fact every central bank lists it as a reserve asset to this day. We didn't have the money in 1971 and so Nixon severed the dollar from gold so we could start borrowing our asses off from that point forward.
The lines between price and value have since become blurred. You don't what a dollar is worth today unless you compare different asset classes such as a share of the DOW against commodities, or oil as an example. That is why you hear things occasionally put in terms of "real dollars" because a real dollar doesn't exist anymore.
The point? Our situation is quite different today and far more precarious.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
You obviously don't sit at my humble position on the food chain. For a lot of us out here the difference between a depression and a recession is only that they're spelled differently.
Recession is when your belly's empty
Depression is like when you're really bummed about it.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I got news for you pal; this IS a Great Depression!
When over half of your immediate family is unemployed for the first time in their lives, and they all have college degrees with decades of successful unemployment behind them............, well, lets just say that recession talk is the understatement of the century!
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Successful unemployment
Is that like being a pregnant virgin?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Could he be a Manchurian candidate? It would explain a lot, sadly.
I hadn't scrolled down the home page before commenting here to see the post about the SCOTUS decision and the Manchurian Candidate. So, just who or what is behind Obama other than the DLC and Wall Street types?
Really? REALLY?
What voter anger? You mean the astroturf teabaggers?
Unbelievable.
Hey, I know what would help reduce the deficit, how about we get the f*ck out of Iraqistan?
Oh, wait. I know what will really help - some tax cuts for the rich and a reduction in the captial gains tax. That would go a long way towards showing Obama cares about bipartisan reform.
anger over mounting deficits is limited to teabaggers you would be very much mistaken. The economic situation demands the government incur deficits right now but if they continue to grow the situation will ultimately become unsustainable. No one will loan you money when you show you have no intention or plan of ever paying it back.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
What the hell are you talking about? They are mad as hornets, because the stupid SOB gave most of the money to the criminals who caused all of the problems to begin with, while the rest of us got a nice speech.
If he had a real stimulus with people working, they wouldn't be so pissed off.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Dow 10,231.25 +34.39
Now, Mr. Prez . . just get us that social security money so we can keep feeding our gambling addiction.
But did aliens come and snatch Obama right after he got elected and replace him with an imposter? One of last night's posts referenced the Manchurian Candidate; seems that's what we got with Obama. With Democrats like this, the Citizens United case seems like a moot point.
That was me. I used the Manchurian President thing at work today, and it got one hell of a laugh. Made people feel pretty good for a minute or two, before they went back to being pissed off at this useless sack of shit they voted for.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Who's the primary challenger?
"Trust no one, Mr. Mulder." - Well-Manicured Man
The Republicans are getting just what they want- a government that's been cut down to a size where they can "drown it in a bathtub". One where only wage earners pay taxes, not the rich, who make money from capital. Where corporations rule and citizens just shut the hell up and get in the back of the bus. Why is this? It's because the Democrats have been bought and sold, too. They are OWNED by big business. Unfortunately, with this insane Supreme Court ruling, it looks to me like we're doomed to see what this kind of path will bring. We haven't been able to implement any sort of reasonable campaign finance reform up until now. How will we ever get it, now that corporations can contribute as much as they can to get their way? I'm sure it seems melodramatic, but I am truly scared for this country. If we drown our government in a bathtub - the one that's supposed to be "of the people, by the people, for the people". What will we be left with?
Overall there are no cuts although there might be trade offs between programs of a small section of the budget. BTW have you ever read the story of chicken little? It's something to keep in mind when reading some of these posts.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
And why, pray tell, can't he also talk about raising the marginal tax rate on the wealthy? That would also help and be a wildly populist thing as well.
It is mostly window dressing.
The obscenely bloated trillion dollar per year perpetual war machine budget (sometimes called defense but split among various departments) is where the cuts need to be made, big time.
That will never be because the system is booby trapped, intentionally. So many congressional districts have their MICC components (that is why it is called the Military Industrial-Congressional Complex) that there will never be serious cuts made.
It is the de facto jobs program, it is highly inefficient, though extremely lucrative for the profiteers.
Obama cut the F-22 and the happy rabbits thought that was something but the budget still went up.
Alternately he raise taxes on the wealthy but that is not likely either.
When the Chinese et al don't show up for our debt market sales, the jig will be up.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Good post. We don't always see eye to eye but I absolutely concur with this comment.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
HIghly inefficient except for slaughtering villagers, women and children etc.
Proofread, proofread…
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
expire. That would be a good start.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I agree with the basic points, except the Chinese, which I will mention in the end.
Yes, it is window dressing, but it is not nothing. This will result in targeted cuts. The cuts will be focused on programs that do not have benefactors that can influence Congress. So this is an austerity program for those with no political power. Maybe on the bright side, more people will consider organizing. I don't see it doing much for "waste" without other reforms in Congress to go along with it.
The cuts may be small in light of the overall deficit, or in light of the percentage of the budget, but they will be huge to the already disadvantaged on which they will inevitably fall. I'm not sure I want to minimize their pain. There seems to be an effort afoot to divorce the interests of the middle class from the poor. I am wary of this.
You are correct that the profiteers will be fine, of course.
The Chinese have already been signaling that the jig is up. The Saudi's can't buy enough debt. Obama's team needs to demonize the bankers that buy the rest of the debt. That leaves ...
The Fed.
We are already self-financing the debt with paper. This has increased the Chinese unease, of course, but we have little choice. It is bad, however much of Europe is also have the Central Banks buy debt as well, just on a more limited scale.
The fight will be on auditing the Fed. They would only be fighting it so hard if the scale was drastically different than in other countries.
Maybe if our Chinese overlords would send some of our manufacturing jobs back here.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Obama - with this one decision has destroyed liberalism for another generation by legitamizing and re-enforcing the right wing narrative regarding liberals in general and his presidency in particular. Obama is now a banker - screw the people - enrich the banksters. This is a disaster. Liberals need to find some common ground with the non corporate tea bag Ron Paul crowd - I know I know - but the elite liberals have sold us out. Where do we go from here?
this week don't you. What was Obama's decision last week that caused the end of liberalism. I forget.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
in Massachusetts. While he was tapping our phones and Rahm was dicing off our narrative fingers to aid Israeli atrocities.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
I have a feeling that Rahm Emmanuel was heavily involved in this. Methinks the Prez needs a new WH COS.
He has the COS that the party wants him to have.
We need to reinstate steeply progressive income tax rates. There should be a jump when a person's income exceeds that of the POTUS, another jump at 200% of POTUS income, and a really steep jump at 400% of POTUS income. That would take care of the Wall Street bonus babies.
Also, we lift the cap on Social Security tax. You make a dollar, you pay into the Social Security fund. Doesn't matter if that is the first dollar you made or the billionth.
Run the numbers and let me know how the deficit and the Social Security Trust Fund looks with the PTR.
I dont think Obama has any choice... the end has begun.
funny old world :/
to be a way to compensate for our declining real productive activity as we continue to off-shore and outsource and completely disassemble US industrial capacity till there's nothing left.
But there will be adequate supplies of cheese doodles and beer.
because then the public might get some.
Obama is a creature of the banksters. He pimped himself. At this meeting. And he's just felt the tug on his leash from his true masters.
How many tons of ammonia capsules will it take for progressives to awaken from their slumber to realize what's happening?
Obama is not 'yours'. He's the property of 'The Masters of the Universe'. He's product. And he's delivering as he's expected to for those who groomed him and made him what he is.
believe this stuff is going on. They just see men in suits (oh they must be important!) who they beLIEve are dutifully at work trying to do good things for the people.
See the glory of . . The Royal Scam
after that rethuglican love.
The pentigon an homeland security wow!
Has anyone noticed that Obama never ever mentions "The Poor"? He always mentions helping the Middle class, and he's always giving in to the Upper class of society, yet I have not once heard him say anything about helping "The Poor."
when he's in a nasty political jam.
a program or tax cut that will apply to .001% of the middle class and tout it as real reform.
.. and when he says "middle class" he really means "working class" ..
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
is probably the fastest growing segment of our society these days. Funny how the first order of business for any group of feudal lords is making sure there are enough serfs to do the work, innit?
So Obama is pulling a Clinton? How shocking that Obama would try to be conservative. It worked out so well for Clinton! ROTFL!!!
Verizon to Cut More Than 10,000 Jobs After Sales Miss Estimates.
Well with Sam's Club tossing people overboard that makes 20,000 jobs axed in just a few days days.
Man we're really making progress!
in 2012.
I just can't wait for some Libertarian dud like Ron Paul or some Teabagger dud like Sarah Palin to do *worse*.
This is all about contrasts. I think Obama's biggest mistake was trying to please everyone all the time, and ending up pleasing almost no one. At least we almost got some environmental policies passed ... Too bad we won't have another black president in my lifetime. :(
Being black or not being black means nothing.
Is it the 21st century yet?
Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) this weekend reiterated that he has not ruled out running as a Republican for reelection in 2012.
"It’s possible," he said of a possible GOP bid. "A good old-fashioned New England moderate Republican."
He's just doin' that to scare the Republicans.
Joe is an equal opportunity asshole.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
masters, they are bound to throw a substanstial amount of money behind him.
on that one Rich.
With razor sharp precision.
OMG, OMG, OMG!
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Obama isn't even to the left of center . He's governing as an unprincipled fart in the wind politician and I think they are really misjudging who his base is . Regardless , we have no one representing us save for a handful in Congress and the Senate . I was going to say that I don't know if I would give him my vote again but then it occurred to me with this latest decision by this farce of a Supreme Court my vote isn't going to make one damn bit of difference anyway .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
obviously nobody will believe that Mr. Obama is sincere about reining in fraud-ridden Wall Street until he issues pink slips to the Goldman Sachs alumni who have been running him like a radio-controlled monster truck the past year.
Replace Geithner!!
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
needs to be in Prison
Freezing discretionary spending ..
To save $250 Billion over the next decade ..
That's $25 billion per year ..
That's chicken feed ..
The US spends more than that per month in Afghanistan ..
$25 Billion falls through the cracks in "defense" spending every year ..
Political Theater on the Backs of the Working Class ..
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
http://www.minnpost.com/client_files/alternat...
http://www.livetoknow.com/articles/obama_24x3...
http://www2.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Barack+Oba...
somethere in the vast blogosphere:
"Let’s not forget this is the same American public that bought the notion that Saddam Hussein and his staggered and rotting little country of 25 million was a threat to the continental United States."
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Barack Obama is the culmination of the 30 year plan formulated by the elites and sold to the American People as reform and "freedom". A democratic minority Presidential symbol who serves as at the behest of the elites while serving as the final brick in the facade of American "democracy".
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Whose idea was it to take the hostages?
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
pretty hard. Where am I? Red State?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Okay, so now I have an even bigger problem with Obama. Wasn't Bernanke supposed to be the economic uber-brain who studied the Great Depression thoroughly, and knew the pitfalls of curtailing economic stimulus too early in a recession / depression that would make it worse?
Bernanke is a Republican, among far too many Republicans that have been enlisted to serve in the Obama administration. Obama needs to either fire the whole lot of them, or else " 'fess up " that he, too, is a Republican and switch political parties.
I have had my fill of Hope(TM) and Change(TM) -- Obama is a 1 term President who will forever be known as the Republican who destroyed the Democratic Party from the inside, and who helped drive the remaining nails in the coffin of that late great democratic republic known as the USA.
Time to cut the ribbon on the grand opening of the going-out-of-business fire sale of what is left of the USA -- no bid too low, cash and carry, foreigners welcome -- managed by the very same people that started this arson fire to begin with ... WTF !
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
what a effin terrible idea this is.
obama's econ advisors must be secretly working for the GOP to advise him to propose this fucking awful plan.
AP – 10 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The Senate has rejected a plan backed by President Barack Obama to create a bipartisan task force to tackle the deficit this year.
Man talk about race to the freaking god damn bottom.
D.C. is a freaking Asylum for the Criminally insane!
Remind me. Was or was not Obama elected with an incredible mandate, something like 60 percent of the vote around a year ago, before Senator Centerfold was declared president this month? Or did I dream that?
Compare Obama's mandate for change to Bush's "mandate" of being elected by those traitors to democracy on the Supreme Court in 2000. Yet Bush managed to turn a surplus into a huge trillion dollar deficit that nobody cared about because it was a Republican (just like Reagan had). Bush/Cheney lead us into unnecessary wars, cut taxes for the rich and replace our privacy with a police state called Homeland Security. Bush got Congress to give him anything he wanted, and the Democrats rolled over every time, never filibustered or fought against anything. Which is why we have a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court who just declared that corporations have more rights than people and foreign corporations can control US elections.
And yet after the election I must have dreamed happen, Obama & Co refused to even say they had a mandate and instead of leading, let an inept Congress with a filibuster proof majority accomplish nothing the voters wanted over the past year. Obama took investigating Bush/Cheney and the other war criminals off the table because he wanted to be nice. How did that work out for him?
Now its a repeat of Clinton's lurch to the far-right, and to hell with the liberal base and to hell with the mandate and young and minority voters and what Obama was elected to do. Oh, it wasn't change you can believe in after all. It turned out to be spare change: while you lose the house and haven't had a job in years, just wait things are getting better! Cause next year we're gutting food stamps and social security and unemployment insurance and other "unnecessary entitlements". Because President Centerfold has a mandate and said we have to.
So sick and twisted.
coffee to his "superiors" at this rate for the rest of his "career" in D.C.
.
The Dems have decided that pleasing the "independents" (read: f**king simpletons) is more important than helping the country. You know what I'm talking about - the ones who go, "Heeyuk, the gummints should balance the bujits cuz I do too."
and tax the rich, you dumb bitch.
Cue the Kabuki....
Colossal Failure. He's really screwed the pooch this time. Obviously his people told him he had to go more to the right cause of the Mass. race and he is dumb enough to believe them
as we keep giving billions of tax dollars to the child rapists of Blackwater/XE then everything is just fine.
/snark
"he says this will be targeted to specific waste"
What could possibly be more wasteful then defense spending? Maybe salaries for the congress.
Try redirecting defense spending to public works. Not only will you get twice as many jobs per dollar, you will also get infrastructure that will last decades.
Oh, never mind, just throw the money down the war hole, and fuck the country. That's a great idea.
I thought someone else would have mentioned this, but if you were referring to Hoover, then I think you mean 1927???
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