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Obama to propose spending freeze
By: Glenn Thrush and David Rogers
January 25, 2010 07:29 PM EST

President Obama plans to announce a three-year freeze on discretionary, “non-security” spending in the lead-up to Wednesday's State of the Union address, Hill Democratic sources familiar with the plan tell POLITICO.

The move, intended to blunt the populist backlash against Obama's $787 billion stimulus and an era of trillion-dollar deficits — and to quell Democratic anxiety over last Tuesday's Massachusetts Senate election — is projected to save $250 billion, the Democrats said.

The freeze would not apply to defense or foreign aid or spending on intelligence, homeland security or veterans.

News of the proposal came as the Congressional Budget Office is slated to release new deficit estimates Tuesday morning, and when the Senate will also vote on a proposed bipartisan task force empowered to force votes after November’s elections on proposals to rein in the growing federal debt.

It’s been know for weeks that Obama was considering some type of freeze on 2011 domestic spending but the proposal now would go further by covering three years or the remainder of the president’s first term.

After healthy spending increases in 2009 and 2010, agencies will have some flexibility at first. One-time costs, like the 2010 Census, will also be coming down, and this could help pay for more money for NASA, for example. ..................................>>>>................>>>>..................http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31989.html

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