HAS HE CUT ENOUGH OF THE FAT?In twin strokes, President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to award generous budget increases to domestic programs while proposing relatively modest cuts to wasteful or
obsolete programs that just won't seem to die. Obama's promised line-by-line scrub of the federal budget has produced a roster of 121 budget cuts totaling $17 billion -- or about one-half of 1 percent of the $3.4 trillion budget Congress has approved for next year. The details were unveiled Thursday. White House budget director Peter Orszag said the president's plan for program cuts is just a start and that a lot more needs to be done to dig the government out of its fiscal hole, especially curbing the growth of the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs for the elderly and the poor. "But $17 billion a year is not chump change by anyone's accounting," he said.
I'm nobody will be surprised to hear me say "of course not!" I cannot believe that the President can say, "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," at the same time that he announces his deficit spending!
ReplyDeleteNobody in this country should be allowed to talk about how much money they are going to spend unless they talk about where the money will come from at the same time@!
He is just removing a teaspoon of water from a full bathtub while the faucet is turned on full blast.
ReplyDeleteIsiah, if you have to ask if he is cutting enough (17 billion from a 3 trillion dollar budget) then you need to go back to math class.
Now why you got to attack me for asking a question to prompt a response? You didn't have that to do!
ReplyDeleteThe Insite
I think it is a good start, but not NEARLY enough. Come back to me when the figure reaches a few hundred billion and then I might be a little impressed.
ReplyDeleteThis was really just a media play.
The real issue will be if CONGRESS adopts the cuts. The president only has the power to propose a budget.