The Wonk Room

Grassley Proposes Insane Three Year Spending Freeze

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has been on a roll recently. In the last few weeks, he suggested that AIG executives commit suicide, advocated lying about comparative effectiveness research and electronic medical records, and is now pushing an insane, debilitating spending freeze as a response to our economic ills:

“What you get when you have an across-the-board freeze is everybody is seen as contributing something,” Mr. Grassley said…adding that a three-year freeze would produce a more dramatic effect. “Over a period of time, there’s something predictable about a freeze, and over a period of time it makes a big difference…The multiplier effect of freezing something for three years is very dramatic.”

As Paul Krugman wrote regarding a spending freeze, “that’s not a retrogression to Herbert Hoover; even Hoover knew better than that.” David Brooks agreed, calling such a move “insane.”

A freeze would have the “dramatic effect” of providing dangerous anti-stimulus at the precise moment when stimulus is needed most. It’s a shame that this policy prescription is coming from Grassley, who can be so reasonable when not engaging in crazy rhetoric.