Mickey Kaus called this line from Barack Obama’s speech “a hanging curve ball” for Republicans.  Don’t be surprised to see it in ads starting soon — and probably will make a featured appearance in tonight’s Republican presidential debate in Ames, IA:

Last week, we reached an agreement that will make historic cuts to defense and domestic spending.  But there’s not much further we can cut in either of those categories.

Really?  Just to see how close to the bone Obama has cut since taking office, let’s take a look at “domestic spending,” also known as discretionary spending (which includes defense), during the Obama administration, courtesy of the Heritage Foundation:

Republicans don’t have clean hands, either.  In real terms, the Republican Congress under Clinton reduced domestic spending a little, but as soon as George Bush came into office, it started going up significantly, only to rise even sharper when Democrats took control of Congress in 2007.  We could cut around $300 billion a year simply by returning to 2005 levels, and we could cut it in half by returning to the levels of discretionary spending to the Clinton-era level of 2000.

Obama hasn’t cut discretionary spending.  He hasn’t even cut the rate of increase of domestic spending.  This is such an easily-refutable argument that it just demonstrates that Obama has run out of excuses, and is simply mailing it in now.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

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