President Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2011 will include a three-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending, a step that the administration says will save the country $250 billion over the next decade. Excluded from the freeze is money spent by the Pentagon, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security, and spending related to international affairs.
So who would this freeze affect? According to the Times, “programs for which Congress allocates specific budgets each year, from air traffic control and farm subsidies to education, nutrition and national parks.” This sounds like the kind of move that Republicans have been waiting for Obama to make, right? Wrong! A spokesman for John Boehner told ABC news, “given Washington Democrats’ unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you’re going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest.” Poor guy can’t win.
