http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-25/obama-is-said-to-call-for-five-year-freeze-on-u-s-discretionary-spending.htmlObama Said to Call for 5-Year Federal Spending Freeze
By Nicholas Johnston and Roger Runningen
President Barack Obama will propose tonight a five-year freeze of non-security discretionary spending as a way to reduce the federal government’s budget deficit, according to an administration official.
Obama plans to offer the freeze in his annual State of the Union address to Congress, the official said on condition of anonymity. It would extend the three-year freeze Obama proposed last year by an additional two years, to 2015.
The spending freeze will be part of an address to the nation that also will focus on accelerating the U.S. recovery and maintaining the nation’s competitiveness in the global economy.
“The president’s plan would cut spending more over the five years than the Republican plan,” said Stan Collender, a former congressional budget analyst and managing director at Qorvis Communications in Washington. He said a rough estimate of savings from the freeze would be about $165 billion over the five years it’s in effect... Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Obama would consider lowering corporate taxes, among a variety of proposals to boost the economy...