The Discretionary Freeze
Speaking in Florida, John McCain offered a fair ding on Barack Obama for some space-related flip flops: “I know that earlier this year, Senator Obama proposed cutting the NASA budget and delaying the timetable for our return to the Moon and the Mars mission. I believe that he later repudiated his own plan.” That went on, naturally, to make a character-based attack on Obama as an untrustworthy flip-flopper. Considering McCain’s flip-flops on big issues like taxes, immigration, and climate it’s a bit rich to suggest some kind of deep-seated character flaw based on a waffle over something as minor as NASA but that’s life. Then McCain said something more interestingly, namely “Let me say, just in case Senator Obama does decide to return to his original plan of cutting NASA funding – I oppose such cuts.”
Now I think Obama was right the first time to think that reducing funding for manned space exploration and concentrating our efforts instead on scientific research was smart. But be that as it may, Ben Furnas rightly observes that John McCain has committed himself to a “discretionary spending freeze” that would provide for real cuts in funding levels for NASA — $370 million in 2010 if we assume projections of a 2.1 percent inflation rate are correct.
This is, of course, a perfectly general point. Domestic discretionary funding is not that enormous a share of the overall spending pie, but it constitutes a very large share of the overall number of programs. McCain proposes to cut them all — from NASA to housing assistance to national parks to food safety inspections to civil rights enforcement to federal marshals to whatever else you care to name. That issue probably hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves. If McCain were to announce, day-by-day, his planned cuts to each and every program he’s planning to cut those things would each garner some coverage. But instead by failing to enumerate the cuts, they escape scrutiny. McCain can even give speeches denying he wants to cut programs that he has, in fact, proposed cutting. And nobody asks him questions like why, exactly, is it smart to cut funding for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS isn’t an expensive operation. And while I suppose we could get by without accurate information about economic conditions in the United States, it seems like something we should want. Has the desirability of obtaining accurate statistical information declined? Did the National Weather Service do something to merit cuts? Are we no longer interesting in the US Attorneys’ efforts to enforce the law?
18 Responses to “The Discretionary Freeze”
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August 19th, 2008 at 11:23 am
oh matthew, matthew: still hung up on the expectation that words have meanings and that journalists should care about them?
i actually doubt that mccain understands what a “domestic discretionary freeze” is except that it’s a device to sound fiscally responsible. (alternatively, he does understand what it means: it means that he has the discretion but not the obligation to freeze whatever he wants to!
August 19th, 2008 at 11:48 am
“still hung up on the expectation that words have meanings and that journalists should care about them”
funny thing to say about the pundit who questions whether AUSA’s consider Americans the proper subject of their law enforcement efforts in an attempt to discuss budget cuts (”Are we no longer interesting in the US Attorneys’ efforts to enforce the law?”)
August 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
It is ever thus. Republicans have spent decades spinning the story that the majority of tax dollars are wasted (plus the occasional lie about how foreign aid is the largest part of the budget), so obviously they can cut taxes without cutting anything other than “waste.” When they get into office, they push through tax cuts for their wealthy and corporate contributors, tell the non-wealthy base “we cut your taxes!” (knowing that the base doesn’t have accountants to figure out the truth), run up huge deficits, and claim that it’s somehow all the fault of whatever tiny portion of their agenda Democrats wouldn’t go along with (because they’ve also spent decades building up the myth that tax cuts never cause deficits.)
August 19th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
McCain has proposed a freeze on discretion, in which policy will be determined by prejudice and animal instinct rather than by complicated mental processes like discernment. Now there’s something that all of us can rally around!
August 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Well, the answer to your final question is clearly yes, from the GOP’s point of view. The official Republican stand is that US attorneys should only engage in political witchunts against Democratic politicians. Any other mission of theirs is secondary.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Obviously Matt you know that it is not John McCain’s responsibility to point out the downsides of his policies. And no one expects the media to do that. It might be helpful to the Democratic cause if they started pointing these things out in a way that draws some attention.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Matt,
What part of this chart do you not understand?
FY09-Current Trends are not Sustainable
Under McCain’s tax plan, he is faced with no alternative to reducing funding for federal discretionary programs unless the Congress is willing to increase the size of the fiscal deficits and again raise the federal debt ceiling as it did less than two months ago. He’s stuck with big problems under the no new taxes scenario.
Under Obama’s tax plan, he is still faced with problems on the discretionary funding front if looking to the long term future. Not as bad, but the problems persist. We can expect his answer (or that of the Congress) to be the assessment of additional taxes and fees above and beyond reversing or expiring Bush II’s tax cuts approved by the Congress.
CBO, GAO, and other professional assessments have explained that the U.S. is not anticipated to grow its way out of the federal budget problem. Other reference charts are available that indicate the same general trend line.
Additional federal taxes and discretionary cuts will be the order of the day throughout the next decade.
Meanwhile, the federal government is undertaking every effort to push larger share responsibility for some mandatory programs’ funding obligations down to state level. That problem, taken in concert with county and municipal funding issues, sets the stage for additional new taxes and tax increases below the federal level.
Wait until they tax the Internet.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Uggg! Why does Obama want to return to the Moon?
I don’t disagree with spending the same funds on space exploration, but humans and space don’t mix and we learn next to nothing by sending humans along.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Not too long ago, he vowed to veto any and all earmarks. A day later someone asked if he would veto aid to Israel, as this was a congressional earmark. Oh no, of course not.
John McCain, a man who says what he means and means what he says —— except when he doesn’t
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