Didn't they pass something called "cut, cap and freeze" or something like that back in the debt ceiling debate? Look, democrats are just not going to agree to hold spending constant, much less cut. Their only real interest is in getting republicans to alienate their core supporters by voting for tax increases. The problem with all the democrats' so-called balanced plans is the tax increases come immediately, but the spending cuts are way off in the future and as a result, never take place. For some reason, the mealy mouthed weasels leading the republican party can't seem to find the backbone to actually say that. Instead they mumble a lot of platitudes about wanting to work together with democrats. I do agree withyou that a simple plan to freeze all spending at current levels has a lot of appeal. Let the congress and president have the flexibility to shift funds around, so they can begin to grasp the concept of prioritizing spending, but we are spending enough.
All of the bills they have passed in terms of freezing spending have also had spending cuts with them. I think that they would be best off just making a simple bill to freeze spending, as it doesnt give the democrats any ammo. If they were to just freeze spending, dems cant claim republicans are trying to throw grandma off a cliff, as they are not targeting anyone specifically. Let the democrats go around and try to argue that we should increase spending while we are running 1.5 trillion dollar deficits, its a losing argument. Republicans could play the exact same game Obama is playing if they just simplified it.