WASHINGTON (AP) - Facing voter anger over mounting budget deficits, President Barack Obama will ask Congress to freeze spending for some domestic programs for three years beginning in 2011, administration officials said Monday. Separately, Obama unveiled plans to help a middle class "under assault" pay its bills, save for retirement and care for kids and aging parents.

The spending freeze would apply to a relatively small portion of the federal budget, affecting a $477 billion pot of money available for domestic agencies whose budgets are approved by Congress each year. Some of those agencies could get increases, others would have to face cuts; such programs got an almost 10 percent increase this year. The federal budget total was $3.5 trillion.

The three-year plan will be part of the budget Obama will submit Feb. 1, senior administration officials said, commenting on condition of anonymity to reveal private details. They said Obama was expected to propose the freeze Wednesday night in his State of the Union address.

The Pentagon, veterans programs, foreign aid and the Homeland Security Department would be exempt from the freeze.

The savings would be small at first, perhaps $10 billion to $15 billion, one official said. But over the coming decade, savings would add up to $250 billion.

SNIP

Among the president's economic ideas:

_Nearly doubling the tax credit that families making under $85,000 can receive for child care costs, with some help for families earning up to $115,000, too.

_Capping the size of periodic federal college loan repayments at 10 percent of borrowers' discretionary income to make payments more affordable.

_Increasing by $1.6 billion the money pumped into a federal fund to help working parents pay for child care, covering an estimated 235,000 additional children.

_Requiring employers who don't offer 401(k) retirement plans to offer direct-deposit IRAs for their employees, with exemptions for the smallest firms.

_Spending more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents and get support for themselves as well

SNIP

Obama's initiatives also include expanding and simplifying a tax credit that matches retirement savings, and making 401(k) rules easier to understand.

On the matter of gays in the military, Obama has promised to lift the ban on gays serving openly, and several lawmakers support a repeal of the law. But some senior military advisers and members of Congress have urged the president not to shake up the status quo at a time of two wars.

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he had planned to convene a hearing on the issue in January, but that the Obama administration asked him to hold off until the president's national address.

"We were told by the Pentagon that they expected the president to say something in the State of the Union on it," Levin said.

Levin, who favors repealing the law, said he does not know what Obama will say. He said he plans to hold hearings in February and would like to hear testimony from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mike Mullen.

Exploding heads! Look-out!

What happens when Ezra, Josh, Matt, and Markos figure out that the guy they put in office bankrupted the Dem party and the taxpayer by borrowing trillions and then handed almost all of it to fat-cat Democrats for a day.

A lot of families are really, really hurting. It would be unforgivable if the GOP had done this.

Time to lay the blame at the right door.

Hell, no.

I can't believe he's doing this when he has Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.

Assumes facts not in evidence: That Democrats and Obama actually want good policies that help average Americans.

They want policies that help their puppetmasters. In this regard they have been extremely successful and gotten everything they wanted.

I'm really shocked. What are he and his people thinking?

h/t lambert at Corrente

The White House has decided to begin funding private companies to carry NASA astronauts into space, but the proposal faces major political and budget hurdles, according to people familiar with the matter.  

The controversial proposal, expected to be included in the Obama administration's next budget, would open a new chapter in the U.S. space program. The goal is to set up a multiyear, multi-billion-dollar initiative allowing private firms, including some start-ups, to compete to build and operate spacecraft capable of ferrying U.S. astronauts into orbit--and eventually deeper into the solar system.

Congress is likely to challenge the concept's safety and may balk at shifting dollars from existing National Aeronautics and Space Administration programs already hurting for funding to the new initiative. The White House's ultimate commitment to the initiative is murky, according to these people, because the budget isn't expected to outline a clear, long-term funding plan.

The White House's NASA budget also envisions stepped-up support for climate-monitoring and environmental projects, along with enhanced international cooperation across both manned and unmanned programs.

   "Andrew Leonard asks when I'm going to "blow my top" over Obama's statement that now is the time to "get serious" about reducing debt. Um, never?"
   "Look, it has been obvious since the primary, if you were paying attention, that Obama -- who has many excellent qualities -- has an unfortunate tendency to echo "centrist" conventional wisdom, even when that CW is demonstrably wrong."
   "And right now, deficit-phobia has quickly congealed into the latest CW."
   "And Obama, being who he is, apparently feels compelled to give at least rhetorical obeisance to the CW. We can only hope that his economists, who know better, can convince him not to act on it."

What the heck?  

We can argue over whether government spending helps the economy but this is trying to have it both ways.

He sold us on the stimulus, right said waste of money, left said not enough and it hasn't worked (yet).  So if you bought his original argument then this is what?  An admittance of wrongdoing? Giving up?    

He's going to freeze some spending but not enough to really do what the right wants and too much do do what the left wants.