Obama to seek 3-year spending freeze

PRESIDENT Barack Obama, under pressure from fiscal conservatives, will seek a three-year freeze on domestic spending in his 2011 budget that would save $250 billion (€177.5bn) by 2020, administration officials said.

Obama will outline the spending hold-down in his State of the Union address tonight and will spell it out in detail on February 1, when he unveils his second budget.

Obama is under fire for a record deficit and has called for a bipartisan congressional commission to consider spending cuts and tax increases to improve the country’s fiscal outlook.