United Liberty

President Barack Obama is talking about addressing the deficit, apparently telling cabinet departments to expect the issue to be addressed either by a spending freeze or cuts:

The Obama administration, mindful of public anxiety over the government’s mushrooming debt, is shifting emphasis from big-spending policies to deficit reduction. Domestic agencies have been told to brace for a spending freeze or cuts of up to 5 percent as part of a midterm election-year push to rein in record budget shortfalls.
[…]
White House budget director Peter Orszag on Friday told The Associated Press it is imperative to start curbing the flow of red ink. But he called it a balancing act and said acting too fast could undercut what appears to be a fledgling economic recovery.

Orszag has said the spending blueprint, for the budget year that begins Oct. 1, 2010, would put the nation “back on a fiscally sustainable path” and suggested it would include a mix of spending cuts and new revenue-producing measures.

Of course, “new revenue-producing measures” is a just a nice way of saying new taxes or tax increases.

President Obama’s last budget increased spending by large amounts over the previous year, and remember he’s following the footsteps of George W. Bush.

The problem is the president is very specific. Does he mean an actual cut in the levels of spending? Or just cuts in the proposed increases for the next budget? With total budget deficits estimated between $9 trillion to $14 trillion from now until 2019, the president needs to give us substantive or else this is lip-service, a cheap attempt to settle legitimate concerns of taxpayers.