Remember the debate between McCain and Obama on the budget ? Obama criticized McCain's budget cutting ideas as being too broad .He instead said he would take a scalpel to it.

Well today we know what he meant.

He directed his cabinet to cut $100 million from a $3.5 Trillion budget... a 0.0029% slash!. The equivalent of scraping skin follicles from the patient .
washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/19/AR2009041902009.html?hpid=topnews)

We don't need a scalpel, we need a chainsaw!

Scalpel? That's more like a pair of tweezers. Heck, we'd save more than that if he'd just let JPMorgan Chase repay their TARP funds.

Micro laser and electron microscope, anyone?

For a household with a 50 grand income ;this would be a cut of $1.45 .

Speaking of JP Morgan Chase. You see that they want to repay TARP and Obama won't let them . In fact; the gvt said that Strong banks will be allowed to repay federal bailout funds, but only if such a move passes a test to determine whether it is in the national economic interest.
http://www.reuters.com/article/gc06/idUSTRE53J03720090420

The got their hooks into the financial industry and they will not let go. Consider the financial sector nationalized (ala Chavez).

Yep, Obama wants them to have those funds available to loan to more deadbeats. That way he can keep his hooks in the financial sector and brag about how many people he helped with housing.

The latest scheme was to exchange TARP with equity in the banks.
US may convert bank bailout to equity share - NYT | Markets | US Markets | Reuters (http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN1935467020090420)

Next ,like in the auto sector, they will make appointment decisions on the Board of Directors of the banks.

Kudos to the DHS . They weighed in by making huge sacrificial cuts .

The Department of Homeland Security estimates it can save up to $52 million over five years by purchasing office supplies in bulk. It also estimates it can save $3 million by ending consulting contracts to create new seals and logos.

They could also save a fortune by not commissioning reports that say right wingers are a national security threat.

The latest scheme was to exchange TARP with equity in the banks.
US may convert bank bailout to equity share - NYT | Markets | US Markets | Reuters (http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN1935467020090420)

Next ,like in the auto sector, they will make appointment decisions on the Board of Directors of the banks.

Talk about the nose of the camel...

Kudos to the DHS . They weighed in by making huge sacrificial cuts .

The Department of Homeland Security estimates it can save up to $52 million over five years by purchasing office supplies in bulk. It also estimates it can save $3 million by ending consulting contracts to create new seals and logos.

They could also save a fortune by not commissioning reports that say right wingers are a national security threat.

They could save even more by eliminating the agency, it's not needed since Obama has apparently made us safe. Consider what Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair's comment on releasing the torture memos, "those methods, read on a bright, sunny, safe day in April..." And not to mention Obama's vision of his new high speed rail system:


What we’re talking about is a vision for high-speed rail in America. Imagine boarding a train in the center of a city. No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes.

We apparently don't need any security... and apparently he has forgotten about Madrid.

Hello tom:

Well you can stop pumping each other up. The TRUTH has arrived!

I'm not a spender. I AM an investor. If the investments in rebuilding our infrastructure, reforming health care, and changing the direction of our energy needs, DON'T pay off, then I'll call them a waste.

By ANYBODY'S calculation, however, it's too soon to tell.

Another truth, is that if we DON'T deal with these things NOW, we WILL fall off the cliff. In the past 30 years, NOBODY has been willing to deal with the problems that Obama is. The kind of thinking demonstrated HERE is exactly WHY these problems have NOT been dealt with before.

I don't understand how you think our health care system can continue unabated. I don't understand why you don't think we're running out of oil. I don't understand why you think throwing trash into the air is OK. I don't understand why you think our bridges and roads are sound when you KNOW they're not.

Had these problems been dealt with when they reared their ugly heads, they wouldn't cost soooo much to fix.

Indeed. MUCH of our present dilemma can be a directly attributed to our "short term" mentality. Corporate CEO's forfeited the long term future of their companies for the short term stock price. Politicians forfeited the long term future of our country so they could get elected again.

Hopefully, things will change.

excon

Yeah ;I know that in the Orwellian world government overspending is now called investment . Did you think the Republicans were "investing " when you complained that they expanded the government ?


I don't understand how you think our health care system can continue unabated. I don't understand why you don't think we're running out of oil. I don't understand why you think throwing trash into the air is OK. I don't understand why you think our bridges and roads are sound when you KNOW they're not.

Can you throw anymore strawman clichés at me to brush off ?
OF course that is not what I think. I just have different solutions than the Keynes on steroids approach which has a proven track record of failure .

Every single one of these I have responded to in the past ;but "investing " is not the role of gvt. (except highway infrastructure because that is in the Constitution)

Clearly Obama is concerned about the public backlash at his irresponsible fiscal policies or else he would not have demanded his Cabinet to make token cuts.

Here is Obama's massive budget cut in perspective courtesy of the Heritage Foundation:

http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/obamacuts.jpg