Before Obama’s SOTU … Republicans Pass Non Binding Spending Cuts by The 256-165 Bi-Partisan Vote

Just hours before President Obama delivered the SOTU, the GOP House of Representatives passed a non-binding, bi-partisan spending cut measure that would cut federal budget to 2008 levels or less by a 256 to 165 vote. Seventeen Democrats cross party lines and voted with the GOP. Its all about the spending and cutting the federal deficit, which party is going to be perceived as not being serious about reducing the deficit? The loser of this issue loses badly in 2012.

Just hours before President Obama delivers his State of the Union Address, the GOP-led House easily endorsed cutting the federal budget to 2008 levels or less.

House Speaker John Boehner, left, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, right, talk to reporters about the federal budget. The 256-165 vote was aimed at getting Democrats to go on record about federal spending, a key issue in the 2010 election that helped Republicans take the House majority.

Seventeen Democrats, most members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, sided with 239 Republicans to pass the non-binding measure.

Earlier today, President Barack Obama released part of his SOTU that stated that he would ask for a spending freeze fopr the next 5 years. Wow, Mr. President, that will amount to nothing. It is the same old promises from the past when it comes to spending. Of course this year Obama will call it “investing”, not spending. So we are supposed to believe that Obama has become a fiscal hawk … hardly as so aptly stated by Protein Wisdom, “Freezing the budget after increasing discretionary domestic spending by 84% is hardly a sacrifice”.

Pursuing a path of deficit reduction and government reform, President Obama will tonight in his State of the Union address call for a ban on earmarks and he will propose a five year budget freeze on non-security related discretionary spending, ABC News has learned.