Today’s Washington Post reports the latest in symbolism from the Obama White House:
President Obama convened his Cabinet for the first time today and instructed department heads to trim their budgets by a combined $100 million over the next 90 days.
Although the cuts would account to a minuscule portion of the federal budget, they are intended to signal the president’s determination to trim spending and reform government, a senior administration official said.
“As part of his commitment to go line by line through the budget to cut spending and reform government, he will challenge his Cabinet to cut a collective 100 million dollars in the next 90 days,” the White House said in a statement issued before the meeting.
That’s right $ 100 million, out of a $ 3.6 trillion budget. That amounts to about 3 one-thousandth’s of one percent of the budget. Less that a drop in the bucket.
Get back to me when you’re talking about real budget cuts, Mr. President.
April 20th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
What, and this absolves him of that commitment?
This guy looks like a bigger jerk with each passing day. He really does think that we’re all too stupid to notice.
April 20th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
tfr sounds like another of the sore losers in the recently consolidated elections. I’m sure he/she overlooked the hundreds of billions of dollars lost by the free marketeers of the Republican administration; and the other hundreds of billions more lost with tax breaks upon tax breaks for the wealthiest citizens of our country; not counting the thousands of heedless deaths of our brave American military in an ill gotten war in Iraq. This is a small start but still a start. Bush never even got out of the starting gate. There are so many positive things that have been done by the Obama presidency that it already puts the Uncle Cheney and his lackey’s administration to shame. What’s really stupid is the idealogical warfare being waged by tfr and others like them instead of giving the current administration more than a couple of months to undue the damage of 8 YEARS of total profligacy.
April 20th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
rb,
Increasing spending by billions in one place but cutting 100 million in another is hardly what I would call getting out of the starting gate. It’s more like going back into the barn for a while, sticking your head out the door and then deciding you don’t really want to race today.
April 20th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
rb,
name me three signifigant polices of the obama administration thus far that differ in any signifigant manner from the Bush administration – in particular the things that garnered so much hate dirrected at Bush, where has obama changed that? Thus far Obama has been Bush light on foreign policy and Bush on steroids on economic policy. And they both like executive power, holding people indefinatly without charge and wire tapping, and government secretcy. You, like many others seem to be caught up in a cult of personality rather then taking positions based on policy.
April 21st, 2009 at 7:34 am
[...] Obama’s Phoney Budget Cuts. Below The Beltway. [...]
April 21st, 2009 at 10:25 am
Anyone wanna guess who I voted for?
Can’t say I’m too happy about the results.
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:59 am
[...] that he would challenge Cabinet officials to cut a total of $ 100 million from the Federal Budget, I said this: Get back to me when you’re talking about real budget cuts, Mr. [...]