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Freeze!

By W. James Antle, III on 3.10.09 @ 11:19AM

The House Republicans are getting a lot of grief for their unsuccessful attempt to freeze domestic discretionary spending at last year's levels. "Irresponsible," "insane," and "Don't they know there's a recesssion going on?" are some of the responses. But all such a spending freeze would do -- we're not talking about the entire federal budget here -- is replace the Democrats' $410 billion omnibus spending bill with last year's appropriations at a savings of not even $20 billion.

A $17 billion reduction in the context of a $3.55 trillion budget isn't insane or irresponsible. If anything, it is far too small to make much of a difference in Washington's $1 trillion-a-month club. Like a lot of what the Republicans do, it is neither as outlandish as the Democrats make it sound nor something likely to produce great benefits for the economy or the GOP's political fortunes.

UPDATE: Apparently I'm not making myself clear. As a fiscal and political response, the spending freeze falls well short of what the Republicans need to do. All I am saying is the argument that this would be some kind of radical defunding of the federal government in the midst of a recession is false.

View all comments (6) | Leave a comment

Xavier| 3.10.09 @ 12:28PM

Winning such a victory might not in itself be a major contribution to economic and political health, but it would be very welcome indeed as a demonstration that a responsible coalition exists to defeat some of the extravagant nonsense proposed by the Democratic left.

Bob| 3.10.09 @ 12:59PM

So let me get this straight, Antle. There is nothing that has changed over this last year that would require a reallocation of resources? Do you think it is better in the midst of a large recession to not spend?

This is nothing but dump political theater. If Republicans were serious about spending restraint, they would present an ALTERNATIVE budget taking into account everything that has changed over this past year. This is akin to McCain saying he would not debate and instead go to Washington to fix the problem. It is nothing more than a stunt and Republicans are worse off for it.

Why can't intellect and reason come back to a party that should stand for fiscal conservatism? It is simply because the party is dumber than it has ever been being run by people who use belief over reason.

Angel| 3.10.09 @ 1:14PM

You've gotta start somewhere.

W. James Antle III| 3.10.09 @ 2:45PM

All I said was that the sum of money was too trivial to do much harm or good. I didn't say it was an effective political or fiscal response. But other non-government entities have to make these kinds of spending choices, even as life changes in the course of a year, all the time.

As for whether it is better to spend than not to spend during a recession, I incline toward the Austrian view rather than the Keynesian view. But the $17 billion difference between a spending freeze and the Democrats' omnibus spending bill isn't some massive countercyclical jolt in any event.

Bob| 3.10.09 @ 5:08PM

Antle, I don't disagree with your last statement. However, if it wasn't an effective political or fiscal response and the difference is relatively small, why is the freeze a good idea?

I just can't believe Republicans continue to generate this type of pubescent response. Even though you and I may differ on a number of issues, we could certainly develop a much better fiscally conservative response from both a political and fiscal viewpoint. Right?