"A Transparently Cynical Policy Gesture"

I was trying to think of a succinct way to respond to Obama's plans to freeze federal pay. This expresses my sentiment fairly well:

Freeze Frame: Yep, that’s exactly what we needed: a transparently cynical policy gesture, trivial in scale but misguided in direction, and in effect conceding that your bitter political opponents have the right idea.

Update: I also like pgl's characterization of the policy:

This strikes me as short-term fiscal restraint but not a really serious attempt to getting the long-term fiscal house in order. In other words precisely the opposite of what we should be doing while in a very depressed economy.