From Bloomberg:

“President Barack Obama said reducing the federal budget deficit is “critical” to ensuring future growth as the U.S. economy recovers from the recession...Obama in his address today highlighted some of the measures he proposed in his Jan. 27 State of the Union address, including a three-year freeze on spending (see Deficit Peacocks) for some domestic programs (but certainly not the sacred cow MIC) and creation of bipartisan commission to draft deficit-reduction recommendations for Congress to consider.”

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Ah yes, the old bi-partisan deficit-reduction commission. The place of refuge for the gutless politician who doesn’t want to go on the record with a controversial vote. D.C. CYA at it’s best.

Also President Obama, the old adage is that those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. 1937 for example.

That was the year FDR listened to the fiscal hawks of his day and decided to cut spending and balance the federal budget, assuming that the worst of the Great Depression was over. The result? Unemployment rose again, the economic growth of the previous 3 years was reversed, and the country slid back into what became known as the “Roosevelt Recession.” The dreaded double-dip.