{"id":643590,"date":"2010-01-26T13:30:03","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T18:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=63643"},"modified":"2010-01-26T13:30:03","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T18:30:03","slug":"obama-the-spending-freeze-and-the-joe-the-plumberization-of-the-democratic-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/643590","title":{"rendered":"Obama, the Spending Freeze, and the Joe the Plumberization of the Democratic Party"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"graphic<\/p>\n

graphic by twolf<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Joe the Plumber, February 2009<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

I mean, I cut cable when I realize that I\u2019m not making enough money to cover my bills, I use coupons. Shouldn\u2019t we expect the government to cut some programs?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Today’s New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
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The freeze that Mr. Obama will propose for the fiscal years 2011 through 2013 actually means a cut in real terms, since the affected spending would not keep pace with inflation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sigh.<\/p>\n

I really have no idea what Obama is thinking. Leaving the economic analysis to my betters<\/a>, he is validating decades of right-wing complaints about “wasteful spending”, that “big government” is really the problem, that defense spending is sacrosanct while programs for the stray animals<\/a> are expendable, and most recently, that government spending somehow caused the Great Recession — all in an era in which Americans brought Democrats to power to do more<\/a>, not less.<\/p>\n

Do they think this will appease Republicans? Hell no<\/a>. Do they think this will win teabagger votes? Please. This is truly a policy without a constituency.<\/p>\n

It’s unforgivable.<\/p>\n

\"Share <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

graphic by twolf Joe the Plumber, February 2009. I mean, I cut cable when I realize that I\u2019m not making enough money to cover my bills, I use coupons. Shouldn\u2019t we expect the government to cut some programs? Today’s New York Times. The freeze that Mr. Obama will propose for the fiscal years 2011 through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":288,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-2Hqu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}