Obama's Brain Freeze

Not sure I understand the politics behind this move.

President Obama on Monday will call for a two-year freeze in the wages of federal employees.

The freeze, which would save $60 billion over 10 years, would make a small dent in the nation's debt problem. The accumulated deficits are currently forecast to exceed $9 trillion over the next decade.

If this is designed to make the Republicans like him, that's not happening.  If this is some sort of bargaining tool for getting various vital bills through the lame duck session, again, I don't see how this is going to help.  The CNN article ominously makes this sound like some sort of reflexive Centrist Dalek junk.

According to the administration, the two-year pay freeze would save $2 billion for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 and $28 billion over the next five years.

The freeze would not apply to military personnel, but would apply to all civilian federal employees, including those in various alternative pay plans and those working at the Department of Defense.

Federal workers shouldn't feel singled out: The White House says more tough choices are on the way.

So again, what is Obama getting from the Republicans for suggesting and agreeing with one of their own talking points other than having the Republicans ignore it completely at best and attack Obama for doing it at worst?   From a macroeconomic standpoint, freezing federal worker pay is anti-stimulus.  It's low hanging fruit I guess, but I'm still not seeing why Obama's announcing this now.

Other than he's moving towards the center just for the hell of it, which is entirely possible.  But Greg Sargent points out that Obama's already losing the fight on this:

Indeed, in a statement just now, Eric Cantor, the number two in the House GOP leadership, seized on the news as proof that Republicans, not Obama, are setting the governing agenda. Cantor said he was "encouraged" by Obama's proposal, noting that House Republicans had already "offered the very same spending-cut proposal on the floor of the House." Cantor continued:

"We are pleased that President Obama appears ready to join our efforts. As the recent election made clear, Americans are fed up with a government that spends too much, borrows too much and grows too much."

In other words, Republicans simply pointing to this latest move as proof that Obama agrees with their interpretation of the elections and in response is now willing to follow their script.

So again, what does Obama get out of this eleven-dimensional chess match other than yet another wedgie from the GOP?