'Stupid Hooverism?'

The reviews are in on last night's breaking news re: the federal gov'ment's spending freeze.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel Vs. Jared Bernstein FTW.

Krugman calls it "appalling on every level." Robert Reich says "Main Street is in worse trouble than ever." "...a perfect example of fundamental unseriousness... Ezra Klein, on the logistics of a "spending freeze":

The administration will target worthless programs, like agricultural subsidies, in order to preserve good programs. But the reason worthless programs live in budget after budget is they have powerful backers. And those backers will rush to Congress to protect their profits. You think Blanche Lincoln, who chairs the Senate Agricultural Committee and is behind in the polls for her 2010 reelection, is going to let her state's subsidies get gored?

Candidate Barack Obama, on the "hatchet" versus the "scalpel":