If I were to ask you to freeze your budget, except for food, gas, rent, clothes, utilities and medicine you would probably make the case that you can't save all that much. The same is true for our government but for some reason they don't see it that way.
President Obama's three year spending freeze is a nice token gesture but it lacks the kind of bite necessary to have a real impact on our nation's skyrocketing deficit. The three year spending freeze would only impact programs and agencies that have yearly budgets allocated by Congress.
Defense, Homeland Security, Foreign Aid and the fastest growing part of the budget, Entitlement Programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are all exempt. The total saving over 10 years, 250 Billion dollars or 250 Oprah Winfreys. This will save less than 3% of the 9 Trillion that we will rack up over that same decade. In case you were wondering that is 9000 Oprahs.
While I applaud the symbolic nature of the freeze it is equal to buying a Bentley and taking a pass on the GPS option. About 40% of the Federal Budget is spent on Entitlement programs almost double what we spend on defense. I can't see how we expect to really make an impact on our debt until we are willing to look at these two political hot spots and make some decisions that actually are tough.
Stay Sharp!
