Our President has a new, favorite analogy.  Barack Obama has apparently ditched the car-in-a-ditch story and has begun to trot out a scalpel-machete comparison to explain why he ignored his own debt commission to produce a budget so weak that even Democrats are calling it inadequate:

In acknowledging these criticisms, Obama also insisted that he was on pace to meet his promises to the nation.

“We’ve taken a scalpel to the discretionary budget rather than a machete,” Obama said.

The deficit this year will be over $1.6 trillion in a $3.8 trillion budget, which means that the deficit accounts for 42% of the budget.  I’m not sure what kind of a scalpel a doctor would use to cut out 42% of the body, but it had better be a really big one.

But let’s go with the other end of the analogy.  Let’s assume the deficit is a jungle, and we’re dropped 42% into it and have to cut our way out.  Would you rather have a scalpel or a machete?  If it’s the former, well … don’t expect to get to the clearing.  Ever.  Maybe we’ll drop you a Slurpee or latte occasionally, though.

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