Obama eyes US$400 Billion savings in government spending freeze

US President Barack Obama said the USA’s finances are strained, as he called tonight for a freeze of some federal spending and an end to earmarked congressional projects inserted into spending legislation.
In his annual State of the Union address to the US Congress, Obama proposed a freeze on non-defense discretionary spending that would save US$400B from the budget over the next decade and additional cuts of US$78B in the defense budget.

“We have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in. That is not sustainable,” he said in the text of the speech released by the White House.

At the same time, Obama called for initiatives to improve US education, encourage innovation, and build roads, railways and telecommunications networks.

“At stake is whether new jobs and industries take root in this country, or somewhere else,” Obama said. “We are poised for progress.”

Obama focused the address on the economy and US competitiveness while acknowledging the need to reduce the budget deficit, which last year was a near-record US$1.3T.—Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Jan 26th, 2011and filed underLatest News.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site