From Voice of America:
The White House said Thursday that President Barack Obama is looking to end "the era of manufactured crises and mindless austerity" as he gets set to unveil his 2016 government spending plan.
A White House statement said Obama, a Democrat, would call for eliminating automatic spending cuts that he agreed to with opposition Republican lawmakers during a 2011 budget crisis as the U.S. struggled to recover from the world economic downturn.
Obama's 2016 budget proposal, set for release Monday, will call for a 7 percent spending hike — $74 billion — over what the fractious political parties had previously agreed on.
The statement said the automatic spending cuts, known in Washington as "sequestration," had hurt the U.S. economy and its military. Obama, the White House said, will seek to "fully reverse" cuts in domestic spending while providing equal spending boosts for military and national security programs.
(my bold)
http://www.voanews.com/...
It's a brilliant move, IMO, to bring the word "austerity" into the debate. I feel like it was a concept devised by greedy one-percenters as an argument against massive spending in the wake of the 2008 Economic meltdown. To that end, "austerity" was clearly a smashing success, at least in Europe, where conservative leaders like the UK's Cameron and Germany's Merkel fell for it hook, line and sinker.
The only thing that prevented Austerity™ from fully taking flight in the U.S. was President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress from 2008 to 2010. Even then, it was kind of touch and go! But now, Goposaurs are going to have to own it.