Holy Pointless Gimmick, Batman

Otto Preminger as Mr. Freeze

There he goes again.  In an effort to "appeal to Republican leaders leaders" in order to find what the New York Times calls a "a common approach to restoring the nation’s economic and fiscal health," President Obama announced he will freeze the pay of civilian federal workers for two years.  A symbolic gesture that will have minimal impact on the deficit led Daily Kos to dub Obama "President Gimmick."  Even assuming -- without conceding -- the deficit must be addressed immediately by cutting spending (but see Growth is Good, Let 'Em Eat Catfood), this plan will do little but punish mostly middle class federal workers.  And what concession did Obama get in return from Republicans?  Nothing, of course.  As Lawrence Michel of the Economic Policy Institute stated:

This is another example of the administration's tendency to bargain with itself rather than Republicans, and in the process reinforces conservative myths, in this case the myth that federal workers are overpaid. Such a policy also ignores the fact that deficit reduction and loss of pay at a time when the unemployment rate remains above 9% will only weaken a too-weak recovery.

All President Obama has succeeded in doing is again buying into the misguided Republican notion that rather than temporarily increase spending in order to stimulate the economy, the government must tighten its belt, i.e., gut government programs.  It sure would have been refreshing on the eve of his meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders for Obama to come out fighting.  As the Times suggested in an editorial Sunday, Obama "should pound the table for a clean, yearlong extension of unemployment benefits, and should excoriate phony deficit hawks — in both parties — who say that jobless benefits are too costly, even as they pass vastly more expensive tax cuts for the rich."  Instead, we get Mr. Freeze.