Barack Obama, Budget Cutter?
On Monday, President Barack Obama announced his plan to cull $100 million in spending from the federal budget. While cutting down bloated federal spending is always a good idea, and $100 million is certainly a lot of money, this cut fails to effectively address overspending.
A Heritage Foundation graphic makes clear why a $100 million cut is small potatoes:
“$410 billion in FY appropriations bill, is part of the $787 billion ’stimulus’ bill which is part of a great $3.69 trillion FY proposed Obama budget.”
Writing on National Review Online, Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl puts the budget cut in context. “Out of a $4 trillion in spending this year,” he explains, “this is the rounding error of a rounding error.”
It is 1/40,000 of the federal budget;
It is 1/7,830 the size of the recent “stimulus” bill;
It would close 1/1,845 of this year’s budget deficit;
It is the amount the federal government spends every 13 minutes; and
For a family earning $40,000 annually, it is the equivalent of cutting $1 from their family budget.
“So why bother?” Riedl asks. “Because it may enhance the president’s ‘budget-cutter’ image. Seriously.”