20. April 2009 · Comments Off on The Symbol is the Thing · Categories: General

Symbolic budget cuts.

“So one of the things — messages that I delivered today to all members of the Cabinet was, ‘As well as you’ve already done, you’re going to have to do more.’ I’m asking for all of them to identify at least $100 million in additional cuts to their administrative budgets,” he said.

Bit by bit, line by line, $100 million by $100 million he’s going to earn our trust.

How dumb does he think we are?

SB7 did up a table to put it in perspective.


spending:       $ 3,500,000,000,000
deficit:        $ 1,200,000,000,000
requested cuts:       $ 100,000,000

$100 million represents .003 percent of the 2010 budget.

Think of it in terms of a middle-class family budget: it’s cutting out a single Happy Meal during the next fiscal year.

Isn’t that a drop in the bucket, the concerned reporter spouse asks?

“It is and that’s what I just said,” the president said. “None of these things alone are going to make the difference but cumulatively, they make an extraordinary difference because they start setting a tone. So what we’re going to do is line by line, page by page, $100 million a Happy Meal there, $100 million a Starbucks Latte here, pretty soon, even in Washington, it adds up to real money.”

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

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