You've got a lot of smart political pros working for you, Mr. Obama, so were they all out to lunch yesterday when your team leaked the spending freeze plan?
If it was basically a series of targeted cuts as it now appears to be, why announce anything at all? You could have submitted your budget and let the press and Congress figure it out.
By doing it the way you did, you handed the Republicans a club with which to beat you. Right on schedule, there was Senator McConnell saying it was too small, and there was Representative Boehner saying it was like announcing a diet plan after participating in a pie-eating contest.
You also kicked your liberal friends in the teeth. Many of them were already frustrated by your perceived unwillingness to push the Senate and House to pass health care reform in the only way left available, getting the Senate bill voted on by the House and then fixed in reconciliation. Most of them also think more spending is necessary, if only to help out struggling states (that would be 48 of 50 which need it, last I looked). Instead, you announced a freeze, something you scoffed at when Senator McCain proposed it during the campaign in 2008.
You fought pretty hard for the nomination, but that spirit seems to have been lost once you took up occupancy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. If you want both you and your party to succeed, you need to step up your game.
Posted by Linkmeister at January 27, 2010 12:01 AM | TrackBackIt blows me away at how many people take this seriously.
The actual amount of "cuts" in the budget over the short haul (~$15-20B) will be a rounding error.
Posted by: Rob McMillin at January 26, 2010 09:48 PMRight. Which is why I ask "why announce anything at all?"
If you really want to make a dent in the deficit, and you're willing to threaten SocSec, then you damned well better threaten Defense, too, since it's a huge chunk of the budget. We don't need 200-300 brand-new combat airplanes, for example. Tankers, maybe, combat jets, no.
Posted by: Linkmeister at January 27, 2010 09:24 AM