Budget BS
by Mike on Apr.29, 2009, under Political
I heard something put in context this morning on my drive to the office which blew me away.
A couple of days ago we heard President Obama, to much media fanfare, issue the “$100M Cabinet Budget Challenge” to his cabinet, asking them to find $100M in budget savings.
The federal government has “a confidence gap when it comes to the American people,” Obama said at the White House.
“We’ve got to earn their trust. They’ve got to feel confident that their dollars are being spent wisely.”
The edict is part of Obama’s “commitment to go line by line through the budget to cut spending” and “reform the government,” a senior administration official said.
To refresh our memories, we are all familiar with the Stimulus package – 787 BILLION DOLLARS of pork laden legislation which was so critical to getting our economy back on its feet, even though most of this spending is not stimulative and much of it will not be spent this year.
Next, we saw President Obama’s “ransom the future” budget proposal featuring a 1.75 TRILLION DOLLAR budget deficit in 2009 and a 1.2 TRILLION DOLLAR budget deficit in 2010.
I laughed when I heard about the “$100M Cabinet Budget Challenge”, but to the average Joe (except plumbers named Joe) $100M sounds like a lot.
However, to put the “100M Cabinet Budget Challenge” in perspective, $100M is roughly the DAILY interest on the 787 BILLION DOLLAR Stimulus package and roughly the amount of interest the country will accrue EVERY 12 HOURS on the 2009 budget deficit.
That said, the “$100M Cabinet Budget Challenge” looks extremely paltry to me.
