Libertarian Girl

That’s the equivalent of what he asked Cabinet agencies to save when he requested they each cut $100 million out of their billion-dollar budgets. Economist Greg Mankiw compares it to saving $3 a year and putting $30,000 on the family credit card. Megan McArdle is sympathetic.

The AP writes:

” The thrifty measures Obama ordered for federal agencies are the equivalent of asking a family that spends $60,000 in a year to save $6.

Obama made his push for frugality the subject of his first Cabinet meeting, ensuring it would command the capital’s attention. It also set off outbursts of mental math and scribbled calculations as political friend and foe tried to figure out its impact.

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.”

Of course, there are those who think that Obama’s doing all he can to restrain the budget.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Democratic Party, Government, Obama, Other People's Money, bureaucracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.