There is the possibility that he is playing to the bond market in an attempt to keep interest rates lower.
Ah.
He also posted pretty much what I'd learned from Noam Scheiber:
“A lot of our caucus won’t like it but I don’t think we have any choice,” said an adviser to Congressional Democratic leaders, who would only speak on condition of anonymity about internal party deliberations. “After Massachusetts and all the polls about independents’ abandoning us for being fiscally irresponsible, we can’t afford to be spending more than Obama.”
Okay, so let's see what we've got. (I feel like I've scribbled this all down on various napkins, and now I have to pull them together...)
So it may have the added benefit of good Politics and possibly good policy...
Maybe...
Obama is proposing this Spending Freeze in order to keep the confidence of the Bond Traders, so that they will help keep Interest Rates low.
You want to keep interest rates low in order to keep the wheels greased for personal spending.
Personal spending means, you and me having a lower interest rate on our damned credit cards will encourage us to buy that Playstation 3, or Canon EOS-7D Camera.
That in turn helps the Best Buy guy with his salary, which will, in turn, allow him to afford a night out on the town to eat at...well, say...Michael's Bar and Grill, which he leaves Heidi and tip, and so on and so on...
Okay, get that. It's not a bad idea in an of itself, but this grand notion, as said before, needs to be tied to a job package so that other people, besides the Best Buy guy can...say go to Michael's spend money and help pay Heidi's salary (and, of course, leave her a big tip).
Yes, dear...I'm making sure to stress that last part.
So, it would really help if the Congress would pass a whopper of a jobs package.
And according to the Washington Post, the Senate is letting us down...again...by not passing a $100-$200 Million dollar jobs package...but aiming at $80.
Thanks U.S. Senate.
You still suck.
