Today, the Obama Administration released the results of a its weeks-long search for areas where the Federal Budget can be cut.
To say the very least, the results were barely even symbolic:
The Obama administration today unveiled program details of a $3.4 trillion federal budget for the fiscal year beginning in October, a proposal that includes substantial increases for a number of domestic priorities as well as a plan to trim or eliminate 121 programs at a savings of $17 billion.
In a statement delivered at the White House after the budget details were released, President Obama defended the cuts from critics on both sides — those he said would fight to preserve the targeted programs and others who consider the reductions insignificant.
“We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits don’t matter and waste is not our problem,” he said. “We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration — or the next generation.”The Obama administration today unveiled program details of a $3.4 trillion federal budget for the fiscal year beginning in October, a proposal that includes substantial increases for a number of domestic priorities as well as a plan to trim or eliminate 121 programs at a savings of $17 billion.
In a statement delivered at the White House after the budget details were released, President Obama defended the cuts from critics on both sides — those he said would fight to preserve the targeted programs and others who consider the reductions insignificant.
“We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits don’t matter and waste is not our problem,” he said. “We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration — or the next generation.”
And to make sure that doesn’t happen, our President has proposed cuts that amount to an astounding .5% of the Federal Budget…….yea, I can’t even fake enthusiasm for this one.
While this is more than the $ 100 million that Obama talked about a few weeks ago, it’s barely half of the amount of cuts that President Bush proposed last year and, what’s more, they aren’t really budget cuts at all:
The proposed cuts, if adopted by Congress, would not actually reduce government spending. Obama’s budget would increase overall spending; any savings from the program terminations and reductions would be shifted to the president’s priorities.
In other words, this is the same cynical phony game that Washington has been playing with the budget for more than 20 years now.
Change we can believe in, indeed.
Yes, once again its smoke amd mirrors. This is why fiscal conservatives like myself know that cuts are so hard to get that we need to fight new spending harder. This is the problem when the stimulus bill was passed so quickly that noone had time to read it. But now that it is in the budget it will be next to impossible to eliminate it. Everyone should demand that their congressman make some cuts or face being voted out of office. We need a new contract with America, which actually was responsible for the last balanced budget. lets call it a contract with the voters. But of course the voters will want to have every other state, every other person accept cuts. Its a catch 22.