As I recall, Obama's budget freeze was all about him showing how "serious" he is about government spending, so he started with the easiest thing he could do: freeze federal worker pay - "non-essential" federal worker pay, that is.

As for "everybody's got to make some adjustments to new fiscal realities," I sure would like a definition of "everybody," because I think his definition and mine are miles apart.

And I would also like a definition of these "new fiscal realities," because it seems to me like, at least on the federal side, they are creating the reality that works for their agenda.

Here's something I found (h/t Corrente) that shows just how badly we are being served these days:

There is no visible harm from current deficits. Yields on U.S. Treasurys are up a tick but still near historic lows. Core inflation in the U.S. is still so far below the 2% annual rate deemed desirable by the Federal Reserve that deflation continues to be more worrying. There is no crowding out of private borrowers in the debt markets.

[snip]

There is cause for alarm. There is the possibility that the government, held under the sway of misguided and obsolete economic theories and driven by a not-so-hidden corporate agenda, will make genuinely harmful cuts in both discretionary spending and entitlement programs - cuts that will cause real and needless misery to millions.

[snip]

When the U.S. was bound by the gold standard, it also faced constraints. Most of the thinking and language about budgets and deficits actually goes back to this time, when the U.S. genuinely had to "finance" its deficit.

Since abandonment of the gold standard and the de facto adoption of a fiat currency, however, these constraints no longer apply. The U.S. is free to print as much money as it likes; the U.S. government is free to spend money without financing it.

How crazy, you say. What about inflation? Inflation occurs when there is more demand than supply and this simply isn't going to happen when there is 8-10% unemployment. Treasury and the Fed have ample tools - selling debt securities and raising interest rates - to deal with inflation when it does threaten.

Modern monetary theory - which is espoused by a growing number of economists and investment managers because it explains the observable facts better than the obsolete theories driving most of the public discussion - deals with the world as it is without a gold standard.

[snip]

The federal government is also not comparable to a household. It does not have a checkbook to balance or a credit card to max out, even though our folksy politicians like to use these metaphors. It does not have to "live within its means" like a family or individual. Our grandchildren will never have to repay all that debt. No one will, ever. It will continue to grow as our economy grows.

All this flies in the face of all the groupthink going on in Congress, in the press and on cable TV. So if you want to reject modern monetary theory as hogwash and cling to theories that worked a century ago, you're in good company. But think about it, look around you, and decide for yourself what best describes the world you live in

This "new reality" is applying the reality of the gold-standard years to the present in order to justify the shrinking of government, and rendering powerless one more group of workers: public employees.

Too late.  This is moving faster than Egypt, and Obama and the Dems don't have weeks to figure it out.  They were warned that they had only a couple of days, and they blew it.

And this is just the "repair" bill for the current biennium.  The governor unleashed his budget for the next biennium today, and what comes next will continue the devastation, because he and his Repubs could see in the last couple of days that there is no real political resistance from the other party.

I've actually looked into selling my car and taking public transport to and from work...I'd lose money, as well as time.  And I've looked at Amtrak alternatives to flying for trips...also more time/money costly.

I'd like to think high speed rail could work, lord knows we all hate what flying has become...but its all about the retail ticket price vs. flying or driving or bus when all is said and done...especially considering the stagnant wages and ever rising cost of living everywhere.  If we think gas will be ten bucks a gallon within 20 years its a great idea, if not I don't know.

And if high speed rail isn't feasible, we'd be better off investing the cash in jobs picking up litter on the beaches of FLA or on a more viable project...lord also knows there is lots of infrastructure falling apart.  

The feds throw money at the states (my money and your money) and the states think its "insane" to pass it up.  So they take it, and build a rail system that won't be finished on time or on budget (with the state picking up the overrun costs), and that once finished will bleed money in perpetuity.  

Here's a little primer on the pipe dream that is high speed rail:

http://tinyurl.com/4e22cwm

source bleedingheartland.com scroll down to item 7.

Mike Beard, a Republican state representative from Minnesota, recently argued that coal mining should resume in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, in part because he believes God has created an earth that will provide unlimited natural resources.

"God is not capricious. He's given us a creation that is dynamically stable," Beard told MinnPost. "We are not going to run out of anything."