"Spending Freeze"? Not Impressive

These bozos actually expect us to be impressed.

There is a “fighting chance” President Barack Obama will propose a freeze in most discretionary spending by the federal government in his State of the Union speech next week, Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, said.

“The president can say in this State of the Union address, ‘I’m going to include in my budget a freeze on discretionary spending, I’m drawing a line in the sand, and I’m going to use my veto pen to enforce that,’”

As though "discretionary spending" is really tight, eh?

The current budget (Bush's last one as proposed, not as passed) included a 5% increase in discretionary. That did not include TARP, nor the GM/Chrysler rescues, nor "porkulus."

According to Peterson/Pew, freezing discretionary would likely amount to a $60Bn reduction in spending. But they also make the point that discretionary cuts are virtually irrelevant compared to Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security spending.

That's without Socialized Medicine.