The President has identified $17B in cuts out of a $3.4 trillion budget that is $1.7 trillion more than we brought in from taxes. Nice try. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about how this might impact future Americans.
The White House budget director, Peter Orzag, says, "$17 billion a year is not chump change by anyone's accounting." What is he thinking? $17 billion out of 3.4 trillion. Seems chumpy to me.
To put this all in perspective, the total federal debt, if you include social programs, is $80-100 trillion. That is 8-10 times the entire national output.
Christopher
Obama Releases $3.4 Trillion Budget Plan
By Lori Montgomery, Amy goldstein and William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 7, 2009
12:18 PM
The Obama administration today unveiled details of a $3.4 trillion federal budget for the fiscal year beginning in October, a proposal that includes substantial increases for a number of domestic priorities as well as a plan to trim or eliminate 121 programs at a savings of $17 billion.
In a statement delivered at the White House after the budget details were released, President Obama defended the cuts from critics on both sides -- those he said would fight to preserve the targeted programs and others who consider the reductions insignificant.
"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."
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