RSS 2.0 FeedQuote Of The Day — Obama Cost-Cutting
by Brad WarbianyWell, the Tea Partiers must have had an impact, because Barack Obama is about to go on a cost-cutting spree. With this quick 90-day window to identify $100B of cuts to make across his cabinet, he’s showing that he really does hear our pleas for fiscal sanity.
Oh, wait, did I read that wrong? Yep, it’s NOT $100B, it’s $100M. That’s not even enough to be a drop in a bucket!
Reason puts it in perspective:
Imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had to be cut? By $3 over the course of the year–approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks. The other $33,997? We can put that on the family credit card and worry about it next year.
Expect petulant politicians, like spoiled children, when these “cuts” are identified, to scream and whine — “But we wanted our latte!”
Now if he would just do that every day for the rest of his term, we might get somewhere.
Comment by John — April 21, 2009 @ 8:38 amActually at that rate (100 million a day), it’d take well over 100 years to compensate the recent 4 trillion in new spending. And that would only account for principal, not interest.
Comment by Akston — April 21, 2009 @ 2:50 pmI loved how Obama mentions how he has to start somewhere. This is like the skinny kid gaining 300 pounds in a month and saying, “Well, if I lose 3 pounds a week, we’ll be good. Gotta start somewhere, right?” Yeah, get started a wee bit bigger in those cuts.
Comment by trumpetbob15 — April 21, 2009 @ 4:40 pmThis whole weight loss analogy doesn’t hold up at all.
It would be more accurate to compare this to a thief that promises to steal less from each house.
Comment by Merf — April 21, 2009 @ 6:52 pm[...] Merf: This whole weight loss analogy doesn’t hold up at all. It would be more accurate to compare this to a… [...]
Pingback by The Liberty Papers »Blog Archive » Obamessiah Pisses Away More of Your Money — April 21, 2009 @ 6:55 pm…or one who cleans out all the kids’ piggy banks, leaves a “U-O-Me” note promising he’ll be back to collect what he couldn’t carry, then “goes straight” by taking back a dollar from one of the folks he gave your money to.
Comment by Akston — April 21, 2009 @ 10:32 pm[...] that he should do that every day for the rest of his term, and we might get somewhere. Akston suggested that might still not get us very far: Actually at that rate (100 million a day), it’d take well [...]
Pingback by The Liberty Papers »Blog Archive » Comment Of The Day — April 22, 2009 @ 7:25 amOn Slashing $100 Million…
Earlier this week, Greg Mankiw jumped on the reports that Obama planned to ask his cabinet members to slash $100 million from their combined budgets:
Trackback by Prose Before Hos — April 23, 2009 @ 10:34 amJust to be clear: $100 million represents .003 percent of $3.5 trillion.
To put those numbers in persp…