Certainly, the freeze had some impact. A freeze reduces spending, and reduced spending will improve budget balance. That's a fact. Whether a balanced budget by itself is absolutely necessary or not, and whether you're going to be above the balance or below by a small amount, from my perspective as an economist, it really doesn't have much of an impact on the economy. But that said, that's a policy matter.
On October 29th, 2013. See this statement in context.