President Obama has become John McCain, at least on economic issues.

When they were running for President against each other, McCain proposed an across the board spending freeze.

At that time, Obama ridiculed the idea.

“The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel," Obama said in his first presidential debate against McCain. "There are some programs that are very important that are underfunded."

In the second debate, he said, “I disagree with Senator McCain about an across-the-board freeze. . . . I want to use a scalpel, so that people who need help are getting help."

Now Obama is the hatchet man.

This spending freeze, which, in traditional Republican fashion, exempts the Pentagon, is a colossal blunder.

As far as the economy goes, it’s totally foolish, since we’re still reeling from the Great Recession and we need more—not less—domestic spending to pull us out of it. By embracing the spending freeze, Obama is consigning millions more to the unemployment lines.

And politically, we need a Democrat for this?

He’s going to be freezing the Education Department, he’s going to be freezing other departments that help the poor, he’s going to be freezing the EPA, he’s going to be freezing the Labor Department, he’s going to be freezing the Justice Department.

That’s less money for people who need it, and less money to go after corporate criminals.

What a hatchet job.

Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.