The Stupidity Is Only Exceeded By the Arrogance and the Cynicism

{link » Obama to Order Cabinet to Quickly Cut $100 Million From Department Budgets}

“President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, where he will order members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.

The budget cuts, while they would account [amount?] to a minuscule portion of federal spending, are intended to signal the president's determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.
[...]
Earlier this month, both chambers of Congress passed Obama's $3.5 trillion budget outline for 2010, which includes unprecedented new investments in health care, education and energy. But the huge budget, which contemplates a $1.2 trillion deficit, has drawn the ire of small-government conservatives who say that the deficits jeopardize the nation's economic future.”
 — By Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post Staff Writer, April 20, 2009

Let's take a brief moment to examine what is going on here, shall we? A $100 million budget-cut out of a $3.5 trillion budget is the following fraction

$100,000,000 ÷ $3,500,000,000,000 = 0.00003

Let's put that in the perspective of the American family's median annual budget of $40,000

0.00003 × $40,000 = $1.20

So, President Obama's proposed budget-cut of $100 million is to his total budget of $3.5 trillion, as the price of a single cup of coffee is to the median annual budget of an American family of four.

This, I submit to you, is the height of political cynicism preying on the naivety of the general public.

 h/t Theo

Post #722 The Stupidity Is Only Exceeded By the Arrogance and the Cynicism