President Obama will be making a move towards fiscal austerity in tonight’s State of the Union.
Obama will call for a five-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending, according to an administration official. The administration will also look for further cuts and efficiencies in areas outside the freeze, such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s plan to save $78 billion in the defense budget.
As ABC News pointed out, from the news: “The FY 2011 budget was $3.8 trillion; $1.415 trillion of which was discretionary spending. The president’s proposal would save, according to estimates, roughly $400 billion.”