Ed crunched the numbers on Obama’s ridiculous budget cuts this morning but I thought you’d enjoy video of The One insisting, with all apparent sincerity, that they’re really quite substantial once you remove, um, all relevant context. Watch here. It’s as supreme an insult to the intelligence of average Americans as anything he’s said thus far as president, including reminding people to wash their hands to avoid swine flu. To put the cuts in perspective, imagine a family that’s already deeply in debt realizing they’re on pace to spend $50,000 this year — and “scaling back” by foregoing one $250 purchase. One half of one percent. That’s what we’re talking about.
Actually, here’s an even better perspective. Remember, Bush’s last budget deficit was less than one quarter the size of what this year’s will be under Obama. And yet:
During his tenure, Mr. Bush also annually announced cuts. The list would carry over year after year as Congress, which zealously guards its spending powers, rejected most of the proposals.
Mr. Bush’s fiscal 2009 list included reducing or eliminating 151 discretionary spending programs, over which Congress has the most control, for a savings of $18 billion.
Bush cut more than Obama did. I’ll leave you to this clip of Judd Gregg on the Senate floor this afternoon invoking oceans and deserts to explain just how little The One achieved here, but if you can spare the time, read David Ignatius’s op-ed about the inevitable deepening of the social-security crisis once boomers who were too dumb to plan for retirement start demanding a hike in benefits to bail them out. Can’t wait for that presser, when Obama tells us an extra trillion really isn’t a lot of money inside D.C.
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