The president plans to call the Republicans' bluff and propose a $1 trillion budget deficit reduction plan -- around $750 million in spending cuts. The cuts include his discretionary spending freeze. While I believe some of these cuts are genuine, I also believe the president is sticking it to the Republicans and daring them to freeze spending. They won't do, and the president will look more fiscally disciplined.
That said, I hate when otherwise smart Obama people talk like this:
"We are reducing programs that are important programs that we care about, and we're doing what every family does when it sits around its kitchen table: we're making the choices about what do we need for the future," [budget director Jack] Lew said on CNN's State of the Union.
No, no, no. The government is not a family. The government shouldn't be doing what a family does. The government shouldn't be cutting spending in a slow-growth economy, it should be spending more because no one else can. Spending creates economic growth when families aren't able to buy lots of things and when businesses aren't hiring as often (or at all). Super stupid talk.
Meanwhile, the Republicans are signalling that they'll oppose the deficit reduction.
Republicans are already basically rejecting it out of hand. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Sunday on Fox News that the plan will offer "paltry savings."
"It looks like to me that it is going to be very small on spending discipline and a lot of new spending so-called investments," he said.
Ugh. "So-called nvestments" in infrastructure that will absolutely grow the economy. Paul Ryan is against this. And he's against cutting the deficit by $1 trillion. He's the "smart" Republican.