An amazing new voter poll on Obama's avowed federal spending freeze

 

A startling new poll just out: It shows that fully 9 out of 10 Americans bought that State of the Union gimmick of President Obama's to impose an alleged spending freeze on parts of the federal budget to carve into the nation's deficit that's expanding faster than a billion bellies at Super Bowl snack time.

Spending and also deficits have shot up as voter concerns in recent polls, even as the hallowed healthcare legislation went on life support. This is because the community organizer's claim that giving health insurance coverage to 30,000,000 more Americans would actually save money sounds about as likely as those late-night TV commercials promising an extra $20,000 a month with a simple 800-phone call.

So the president's firm federal freeze covers every single dollar of discretionary spending -- except for all Medicare spending and except for all Medicaid spending and except for any and all national defense spending. Everything else is frozen. Like the streets of Wasilla, Alaska. Oh, no, one more. Also excluded from the freeze is all Social Security spending.

Obama's spending vow is a flare, perhaps even a rhetorical rocket, a symbolic signal, if you will, demonstrating his Chicago-like determination to rein in the outgo of federal money in this crucial midterm election year when history suggests his Democrats are scheduled to suffer significant losses in Congress.

Oh, no. Wait. That's the wrong poll news. Gee, we're as good with these numbers as the White House predicting national unemployment would stay at 8% thanks to a $787 billion bill for stimulus spending.

The new Rasmussen Reports poll actually shows that 9% -- nine out of every 100 Americans -- think the freeze will do a lot about the federal deficit that has this many 0's -- 0,000,000,000,000.

To put it another way, 81 out of every 100 Americans are already convinced that the president's three-year plan is a phony phreeze that won't do much of anything at all about the deficit. 

They're not against a freeze. It sounds swell. Like a budget-conscious family banning restaurant dinners except on weekends. In fact, 57% of poll respondents would like to see a government spending reduction. They just don't see such a tiny one as mattering much, despite the administration's orchestrated news leaks in advance and the three whole paragraphs the president devoted to it.

And, therefore, Obama's spending veto threat also rings hollow. Since, come to think of it, he's had that at his left hand since he took the oath by raising the right one 374 days ago.

To assist the Democrat president, Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is feigning a fight over including defense spending in the freeze. Of course, that's not going to happen. But her cosmetic talk makes the grumbling Democratic left a little less unhappy and allows Obama to appear like an alert centurion at the gates of national security.

Additionally, this kabuki-like skirmish distracts attention from what all isn't happening at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Because it appears to be coming to the attention of those voters who believed in change to believe in that way back in 2008 they turned over the presidential house and both of the Capitol's legislative houses to representatives of the exact same political party by considerable margins.

So, now that same majority crowd makes even more promises. But, uh, what's the delay in getting things fixed back in that bizarre, broken-down place?

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images (Obama making many promises Jan. 27, 2010); Tim Sloan / Reuters-pool (Homeland Security Secy. Janet Napolitano during the president's long speech).

Comments

[andrew nelson]

Democrat Senators just had a 60 to 49 Vote to Raise the Debt Ceiling of The United States by 1.9 Trillion. They are hoping they won't have to vote to raise the ceiling again until after Nov 2, 2010.

[Prudence]

Where are these polls taken? On the moon? ? Does anyone really believe these change artist -- a new picture every week to reflect the current sentiment? At the same time composite approval polls are down with only a 1.5 difference with disapproval at 47%. Save your optimism and defend your flank! Next time, as the pollsters to call someone who is awake!

[wavynavy]

Admittedly, I hardly ever visit Top of the Ticket, but I am very pleased and surprised at the points made in this essay. It should be on the Editorial Page, but given the pro-Obama, pro-dhimmicrat bias that I read there I am sure that will never happen.

Obama is beginning a death spiral, and we had all better watch our pocketbooks and our liberties.

(Yeh, well, here's the thing. No one reads an editorial page anymore. And this is a politics blog. So there's always lots of opinion here, including now yours, thankfully. So welcome. Hope to see you again sometime.)

[David Blackburn]

And some of us think we should cut war spending and cut many of the entitlements that the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches receive. We need to eliminate their retirement packages and health care benefits!!!

[vol1805]

horse hockey..........nothing he says is the truth.......he just likes to hear himself talk to inflate his over inflated ego

[Reilly]

There is really no need for polls anymore related to what Americans think about anything Obama says. It's a pretty sure bet that there is no truth to whatever comes out of the tele-prompter president.
The major miscalculation obama and his inner circle made is they thought they could bamboozle the American people the same way they have done for decades in Chicago. These dressed up street thugs can't operate outside an environment of one party rule and the resulting corruption, bribes, back-room deals, and bodies floating in the Chicago river that go along with it. Me thinks our little "constitutional professor" is finally being exposed to the concept of "we the people" are his boss.

[Steve851]

I'm a Tea Party person and there is no reason to exclude the military from the freeze. There is no reason to exclude the 2010 budget on a going forward basis

[Rich Vail]

That's all this speech was...Kabuki, designed to pull the rug over America's eyes. This President and Congress have no plans to "control" spending beyond increasing it by leaps and bounds. they are out to destroy the American economy by making the national debt so large that every penny we produce will be spent to pay it back. this will cripple Ameria.

Rich Vail, Pikesville, MD
http://thevailspot.blogspot.com

[Hanna]

As the LA Times and other papers cut newsroom budgets to the bone, why is Andrew Malcolm still employed? The snarky tone here is out of place in an article that should deliver straight news. Are you people still practicing journalism?

This article is a travesty.

(Straight news? You're kidding, right? On a political blog? C'mon, catch up, please. This isn't a newspaper. No paper. But thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. This is fun.)

[Black Saint]

Obama still does not get it & I still doubt if the Politicians of either party really understands what is happening in American!

For years we have watched our jobs being outsourced & in-sourced, aided and abide by the ruling Political elite!

On the low end Politicians have allowed the largest invasion of any Nation, at any time, by any means, as millions of Uneducated, Illegal Aliens pour across our borders in direct volition of our Constitution Article IV Section IV against invasion, the Rule of Law & their Oath of office.

The Democrat support the massive invasion because a large Uneducated, Prolific breeding, dependent welfare class translates into Democrat votes!

The Republicans because their paymaster in the Chamber of Commerce & Business love slave labor with the benefits like Medical, Schooling, Welfare & Incarceration, Section 8 housing etc. are passed on to the tax payers!

On the high end H1 vistas to take the engineering, software jobs etc. at low wages to increase business profits & the insane salaries of the CEO,s their bonuses &, benefits etc.

After years of seeing their standard of living deteriorate & requiring both parents working and still not able to provide a standard of living that one working did it in the past, people are frustrated & angry that no one in Washington really cares about working Americans or the future of this Nation!

Obama promised Hope & Change so the voters kicked out a Elitist, Arrogant, Spendthrift Republican party that was wading in the swamp of corruption!

Now after one year of Democrat rule and total control most are realizing Obama sold them a bill of goods and the Democrats are even more Elitist, Arrogant, Big spending and the swamp of corruption & debt has now turned into a sea of debt & corruption with Acorn , Unions, Seiu, Wall street , Big banks & the tax funded Racist hate organization La Raza!

Both parties when they get total control & power get more corrupt, arrogant & worse than the British & King George that resulted in the American revolution and the shot heard around the world!

Now the good people of Mass. have fired another shot. If the Politicians of both parties still refuse to change and keep thinking they are Kings & we are their Serfs & they & the special interest they serve, know what is best, the next shots they hear may not be as peaceful.

It is way pass time the Politicians realize they are the servants & not our rulers and they exist to serve the American citizens & this Nation, not the special interest, not Mexico, not Latin American and every country in the world while ignoring and punishing Citizens by taxes, jobs and debt to support the rest of the world!

[Tama]

"bought that State of the Union gimmick "?? Your use of the word "gimmick" shows your bias. Is the L.A. Times turning into Fox News?

(It is a gimmick. Period. And this is a blog not a newspaper. You can tell. No inky fingers. And no paper.)

[Da Maverick]

I didn't know Glenn Beck was now writing for the LAT's blog.

This entry is nothing but partisan tripe, it doesn't even pretend to withhold their disdain for the President. Seriously, he made a speech that was well received by over 48 million viewers, and you'll still refer to him as the "community organizer?"

Hey A. Malcolm, I'm sure Glenn Beck is proud of this little entry, but I think he wants you to at least feign like you don't understand (or care) about politics.

(Oh my oh my oh my. You need a new remote. Glenn Beck is on another channel. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment here though.)

[Michael Harrison]

I thought I was reading a news article. Then I realized that this can be likened to Fox "news." Rant, not reporting.

[Piotr Orloff]

As opposed to doing absolutely nothing? And have you conducted your own poll to see how things match up in So Cal?

[James C. Talbot]

You do a lot of speculating. Are you a psychic? Tarot cards?

[Ramon]

Not me.

[Fox News?]

Andrew, remember that part in the State of the Union where the President mentioned how pundits too often sour the policy discussion and make citizens disengage from the political process? Your posting makes his point.

(And yet here you are reading and taking the time to comment. Which is great. Thanks for all that. I do remember that part of the speech. Presidents don't like people saying critical things. But they volunteer for the job. In fact, this one spent $750 million to get this latest job for a few years. As of this hour it's still a free country so you can have your opinion here and I can have mine. And he can have his. Voila. Free speech. Nice to have you here.)

[ster]

The "freeze" ... IF ENACTED and NOT taken away, will
save a whopping 1% (yes, that's ONE PERCENT) of the
future debt.

I could save more for the US just by forcing these idiots to recycle their soda cans.

Sheesh.

This is why people hate politicians. Even when they're not lying, they're not telling you the truth. And hope you swallow it whole. Who am I to argue, people voted for this fool, right?

[Joseph E]

Thanks for wasting my time with your snark. A straightforward report of the poll results up front would have been helpful.

[trespassinthru]

You call the president a community organizer? And what are you, a paragraph organizer? I don't even think so, as your writing evades the truth, that your boy Bush caused the deficit. Where were you then big mouth, when your ex-boss and community non-organizer's husband was ruining everything? You were a big lump of silence. The real freeze is in your brain.

(Actually, wasn't blogging in those days. But if it's half the fun this is, that would have been grand. Thanks for reading.)

[Mike]

This is just the latest gimmick from this administration. We need spending cuts and lots of them. Congress needs to make some tough decisions and the likelihood of that is about the same as a snowball's chance in...

[M.R.]

Thanks a lot for your sarcastic, poorly written "fair and balanced" analysis. That's some strategy you've got there-whatever Obama says, you're against it. Reminds me of the old Groucho Marks song. Now I can add Andrew Malcolm to my word filter.

(Fair and balanced is from another place, pal. Thanks for being here though.)

[john]

Somebody please take the checkbook away from this guy!

[Christian Boyce]

Your tone is offensive to intelligent readers. Could you please be a little less snarky?

(Not all readers are intelligent. Thanks for reading.)

[cooperscopy]

This is why the public needs to be educated. He actully proposed about ten times as much new spending as the freeze would save.

[Steve Mays]

So here's a suggestion, Mr. Malcolm: Quit. Do it now. Hand in your press pass. There are plenty of out-of-work and soon-to-be-out-of-work-reporters who actually give a damn and who won't have any trouble staying awake for a presidential press conference and who are capable of producing a substantive article that will actually help readers understand what is happening in the world, instead of simply complaining about polls. Let one of them have your job. Take up skydiving or running with the bulls or whatever it takes to get you sufficiently excited, and let serious people do your serious job.

(Nope. Don't think so. Having too much fun writing for these thousands of readers and raising the blood pressures of some, Steve. Thanks again for reading.)

[Chad]

Social Security, health care (Medicare, Medicaid, and Veteran's), defense, and interest on the debt make up 85% of the budget. If you aren't willing to slash these programs, you aren't serious about cutting spending. Note that when I say "slash", I mean chopping off an arm and a leg and the other leg for good measure, not a little haircut.

No serious person can look at the actual state of the budget and conclude anything other than that we need BOTH significant tax increases AND big spending cuts to both discretionary AND non-discretionary spending. Anyone who claims otherwise is simply a childish fool.

[Mara]

shouldn't this patently biased article be on the Op/Ed page? Because this ain't 'news'...

(Imagine finding opinion in a politics blog! Of all places. What a shock it must be. Glad you survived long enough to click through and comment. Appreciate it.)

[LeftCoastRightBrain]

On an annual basis this "freeze" is about the same as a couple who makes $80,000 a year saving about $850. Not much bang and too little bucks.

[Bob Sampson]

Easy ways to save money for the US of A:

1. End costly "wars" abroad that are costing us about 7 - 10 billion a month, bringing us to a total of 800 billion spent since 2001.

2. Stop paying salaries of all U.S. Senators, Represenatives, and Governors. They get plenty of money from lobbyists and PACs for their wars chests for them to survive off of.

3. Cut military spending. Stop buying so much overpriced military hardware. Thanks to UAVs we don't need as many F-22s or F-16s.

4. Reduce Medicare and Social Security payments by 10%.

[PappyHappy]

Team Obama has presented us with way too many KNEE JERK REACTIONS that end up costing more than they are worth (to wit: closing GITMO in a year; the trial of KSM -- which will be changed due to political pressure; the famous 'Professor Gates teachable moment; the inaccurate accusation against the Supreme Court during the SOTU speech; and the list goes on.) Sure the electorate has questions, and the more Obama talks, the more questions! The latest 'FREEZE' is just another knee jerk, and after you look what he is about to spend, and what the 'FREEZE' would yield -- if Nancy Pelosi allows him to even do it -- it is hardly worth the effort! What is so embarrassing is that he takes the electorate for fools. Guess we will see in November want we??

[Mark Buehner]

I agree with the sentiment, but this was badly written even by blogging standards. One tip I've learned: if your opening paragraph is a run-on sentence, 62% of readers will give up.

PS: I'm sure, as per the laws of the internet, this comment is rife with grammatical errors.

(Well, delighted that you are among the 38% who not only continued on reading but took the time to leave a Comment too. Thanks much.)

[lkh]

Andrew Malcolm:

It's people like you who are hurting this country very much. Republicans did nothing for America except put us into the huge debt we are in, hurt our reputation around the world, start an unjustified war, continue the ruination of our environment and make corporations richer and richer and therefor yourselves as well.

Go away, Pal. We don't want you around anymore. We said so in our election last year.

(Ah, well, too bad. Because the election was not about me. So I'm here anyway. And so, it appears are you, which is good for us. Thanks for reading.)

[Dan R.]

Mark my words: Reducing the federal deficit and the inexorable growth of government spending with be THE defining issue of the 2012 presidential campaign. The public realizes that entitlements will have to be cut and taxes will have to be raised to close the budget gap, no matter how much the far right Republicans might rail against the tax increases and how much the far left Democrats might howl about the entitlement cuts. The great majority in the political middle in this country will respond to the candidate who puts forth a SERIOUS and credible plan for getting our budget back in balance and paying off our massive national debt over time, and who, unlike George Bush, is willing to use his veto power to veto spending bills that don't conform.

God how I wish John McCain had won in 2008. He's exactly the kid of hard-ass that this nation needs right now.

[XKarenX]

Oh, Mr. Malcolm, you kidder you! Most excellent post. Kabuki indeed. His M.O.: Obama meets with bankers, talks tough, but gives 'em buckets o' money, then calls 'em "Fat Cats" in public to score points. Obama calls out the evil Lobbyists, meets with 'em in private, hires a few (including Daschle) for his "no Lobbyists never no how" admin, all while continuing to decry the evil K Streeters. Promises transparency, continues to praise his admins' transparency, but everything is done in closed door, one party meetings. Proposes in the SOTU speech a tax on banks who have, all but one, already paid back said buckets o' money at a nice profit to the taxpayers -- later in same speech says he wants to give same buckets o' money back to banks to underwrite small biz loans, continuing to call 'em "Fat Cats". Calls for spending freeze in the SOTU speech in the wake of his massive drunken sailor spending, but the very next day his own Party confreres vote it down. President Obama, long nosed master of the "invisible wink" .

[Gene Man]

This is good news. The American public is waking up. No longer can the simplest scams be used to pull the wool over our eyes.

The inherent complexities of economics and government prevent anyone from understanding all of the details, but after enough lies and broken promises, it's clear to most thinking adults that jacking up budgets for most government agencies and then "freezing" these high budgets at some future date, with huge portions of the budget untouched (unfrozen) is just a 'three card Monte' scheme designed to distract.

Thank God the public is awake and paying attention. This frog might still jump out of the hot water.

And as for the idea that the government can take over a few million doctors and nurses, hundreds of thousands of clinics and medical device manufacturers, and fifty states serving 300,000,000 citizens, any thinking person knows this is insane. At best it would be like pouring honey over the watch-works. At worst, the system would just collapse. Only the wildest hubris of people who have never designed complex systems would even dream of this nightmare.

Please keep up the pressure until these nuts get it through their head. Leave our healthcare alone! Fix some insurance problems, attack Medicare fraud, stop out of control lawsuits, and try to help more poor people, but leave us alone!

[needinfo]

I'm not alone. Hooray. After making some rough calculations on current debt, without including the just lifted debt ceiling for the next year of another trillion, I realized that this proposed debt freeze won't account for much more than 1/2 of one percent, and therefore with interest will do almost next to nothing to improve our debt. And with the debt ceiling just lifted for another trillion for the next year, I'm alarmed. Can this be right? I've been trying to find an article about it, thinking I don't understand all of what is encompassed in the President's proposal. Please someone follow up on this, and give us the information.

[Carl F Thelin]

Wait a minute. One hundred minus nine is 91 -- not 81!

(That's correct math. But we did not detail the Undecideds.)

[JohnLeeHooker]

YOU LIE! Joe Wilson

[Zapurdead]

"Still, 56% favor the president’s plan for a three-year freeze on discretionary spending. Only 24% oppose it, and 20% more are undecided. Other data suggests that voters view the proposal as a first step in the right direction. "
-Rasmussen

You neglected to mention that.

[Joe Booker]

The article should say 91 out of every 100, not "81 out of every 100 Americans."

Good article, though.

(Thanks, Joe, for your nice words. 81 is correct though. There are always some Undecideds and No Opinions in the poll mixes.)

[rannan3]

Most informed people have already realized with our President it's not so much what he says, that always ' sounds great '. You have to look behind his words to find ' the rest of the story'.
IN the case of a spending freeze, what's not told is that BEFORE this freeze idea, discretionary spending has been raised 84%. That means for the next 3 years, those higher rates will also be frozen -- they could not be changed/ lowered. When the President tells Congress to CUT SPENDING I will listen , until then it's more smoke & mirrors.

[JG]

It definitely is a sleight of hand. They recently increased spending on these same programs by an average of about 20%, and are NOW saying they will freeze them after the barn door was already left open. What many people might not realize at first is that this FREEZE means that they will not be able to CUT them. So what they're doing with this freeze is protecting these recently-bloated programs from cuts... not trying to cap them. Just how stupid does this Administration think the public is?

Definitely a sleight of hand. Wake up and pay attention, America... or this Administration will steal you blind.

[LadyChurchill]

Perhaps the voters know that the freeze is actually a way for the Obama administration to keep congress from cutting spending. You see, if you freeze it you can't go down anymore than you can go up. The press is absolutely disgusting in it's ignorance of what is going on or they are just in on it all. No wonder no one trusts you nitwits anymore. How about giving the American public all the facts of these phoney ploys that the administration is pulling?

[gary shorr]

Yes, Malcolm, I know you like to use the shield of being just a blogger, not a journalist. Really, though, to be writing under the aegis of a once proud newspaper and not know that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are entitlements, not discretionary spending? Ignorance, laziness, or deception? A bit of each?

Shoddy work that cries out for an editor intervention, but all too common in your output. The habits of the Bush flack die slowly. Work harder.

(And you read closer. You're the one who said what I don't know. Not me. Appreciate all the clicks though.)

[Patriot]

The article seems to have no point. The minority view is startled by the majority view. Of course the conclusion is it's the media or the world is being duped. The deficit is a problem but what big new entitlements has Obama generated. He is trying to reduce the massive military involvement but it cannot be done quickly, entitlements like Medicare are demanded by the public including the tea party fringe people who hate government but gladly suck of the government teat more than they have ever paid in to it. Lame article.