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W.H. official: Liberal critics will be 'muted' once budget unveiled
A White House official said Tuesday that liberal critics of President Barack Obama's proposed discretionary spending freeze will be "muted" once they are fully rolled out.
Rob Nabors, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), emphasized to reporters that the spending freeze will not affect all agencies and that the White House is still committing to accomplishing its goals.
The administration's announcement Tuesday that it will take on the $1.4 trillion deficit by freezing discretionary spending has already earned criticism from both liberals and conservatives, but has been praised by centrist Democrats who are concerned about the ballooning deficit.
The administation will unveil the new budget next week, Nabors said.
Liberals, along with many House Democrats, are concerned that a spending freeze will hamper the government's ability to stimulate the economy that is still stuck in a recession.
"It is a top line freeze, it is not a freeze on every agency," Nabors countered.
But Nabors admitted that the freeze and cuts will likely "lengthen the amount of time" it will take for Obama to accomplish his domestic agenda.
"We were looking to accomplish things in four or five years that will perhaps take us six or seven years now," he said.
Conservatives have said that the freeze doesn't go far enough because it doesn't address emergency spending bills such as the Democrats' job creation program this year. Democrats also passed the $787 billion stimulus package as an emergency spending measure.
But Nabors said that the administration still views the jobs bill and healthcare reform legislation as measures needed to help revive the economy and shrink the federal deficit.
"We are going to make sure the economy is growing," he said.
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