Barry's budget and the illusion of spending cuts

Our state-run media is cheering the new Obama Austerity Program. There's only one problem — he's increasing overall spending. Really. Last year's budget was $3.6 Trillion dollars. This year it's $3.7 Trillion. That's an increase.

Yeah, I know, journalists (and JournoListas) suck at math.

So, how exactly can Barry claim he's "cutting" spending? Two ways. First is the old Washington trick of saying you want to up the funding for the Frozzbot Initiative by say $10 billion, settle for a $6 billion increase, and then trumpet a $4 billion dollar "cut". Yes folks, there is a lot of that in Barry's budget numbers.

The other way to make "cuts" is the Jon Corzine cut-the-stuff-that-really-hurts ploy. Every year at budget time Corzine would close the state parks. Hey, there's no money! In NJ the budget is due July 1^st so shutting down the beaches on the Fourth of July weekend was, ahem, wildly unpopular. And our spineless legislature always caved in a matter of hours because of that.

So Barry took the ax to Pell Grants for college students. All the Kool Kidz who drank the Hopium and Changeba Kool Aid are in for a rude awakening. No more free money for you!

Well, at least until they show up in DC and start breaking stuff. Then who knows, but it's likely the money will magically be found asap. If it was up to me though I'd say, "fuck 'em." TANSTAAFL. Work for your own damn education (I did), you'll appreciate it more.

And in a sop to his greenie ecowarrior constituency Barry lopped billions off of home heating assistance for the poor. "But Chris, how is that a green initiative?" I hear you cry. Well, with Globull Warming ramping up faster than ever people won't need to heat their homes anymore. Just ask Al Gore, he did predict that by next year the Arctic would be ice-free. And we all know that Al is the World's Foremost Authority on all that Climate Change Stuff. It's simply not possible for him to be wrong…

And finally of course Mr. I-never-raised-taxes-once has inserted beaucoup tax increases in his budget too. Soak the rich! It's so predictable that it's not even worth commenting on.

House Republicans have their own proposals. They contain actual, bona fide spending cuts. But not nearly enough for my tastes. Why not a complete 5% across-the-board cut. Spare nothing. Not defense, not foreign aid or farm subsidies or transportation or Amtrak or student loans or Fannie Mae, and certainly not entitlements.

Go ahead and tell me with a straight face that there is a government program which doesn't waste more than 5% of its budget. Because you know what, you can't.

And then let's do the same thing next year. And watch that deficit disappear!

Posted at 12:02 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   Comments | Perm Link |
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