January, 2010:
Sources: Obama to propose discretionary spending freeze
President Obama plans to announce a three-year freeze on discretionary, “non-security” spending in the lead-up 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.
November, 2010:
Obama Freezes Pay for Federal Workers for Two Years
WASHINGTON — President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers on Monday as he sought to address concerns over sky-high deficit spending and appeal to Republican leaders to find a common approach to restoring the nation’s economic and fiscal health.
It would be one thing if this were a brilliant political move, guaranteed to strengthen the President's political position or that of the Democratic Party. But it's not. We've been through this before, and given that the gimmick didn't work last time -- we still lost the House despite the discretionary spending freeze -- there's no reason to think anything will change this time around.
Politically speaking, the only thing that really matters is getting this economy back in shape, and offering up puny proposals to shave a fraction of a percentage point off of federal spending is a complete waste of time and energy.