Obama's $100 million budget cut amounts to a cup of coffee

Krugman

Even New York Times columnist and Obama best friend Paul Krugman lampooned the announcement in his New York Times blog:

“'Pretty soon, even here in Washington, it adds up to real money',” says the president. Except, you know, really it doesn’t. Let’s say the administration finds $100 million in efficiencies every working day for the rest of the Obama administration’s first term. That’s still around $80 billion, or around 2% of one year’s federal spending. OK, politics is theater. But you could argue that the president shouldn’t feed the bogus claim that we can close fiscal gaps by eliminating a bit of waste."

Decaf

The Associated Press breaks it down this way -- without resorting to coffee.

"The bottom line: Not much.

The president gave his Cabinet 90 days to find $100 million in savings to achieve over time.

For all the trumpeting, the effort raised questions about why Obama set the bar so low, considering that $100 million amounts to:

--Less than one-quarter of the budget increase that Congress awarded to itself.

--4 percent of the military aid the United States sends to Israel.

--Less than half the cost of one F-22 fighter plane.

--7 percent of the federal subsidy for the money-losing Amtrak passenger rail system.

--1/10,000th of the government's operating budgets for Cabinet agencies, excluding the Iraq and Afghan wars and the stimulus bill."

More impressive

Want a more impressive example of 100 million? Susan Boyle's video on YouTube. The Scottish singer who wowed the world with her singing on "Britain's Got Talent" has just topped 100 million page views (combined YouTube videos).

If you haven't seen it yet, click here.

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