Obama's Budget Cuts With Pennies

[OldeWolf]

cWt8hTayupE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt8hTayupE

[Khrymsyn]

wow.

Now THAT is face smacking clarity right there.

good golly.

[Ink Asylum]

I wonder how many pennies would represent earmarks, so decried by McCain and other politicians who want to appear fiscally conservative without actually proposing cuts in anything substantial.

Anyone who knows anything about government spending knows that Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and Defense Spending make up the vast majority of expenses. So anyone who proposes a cut in something that isn't one of those three institutions is not proposing much of a cut at all.

[Generation ABXY]

Wait, did the $100 Million sound big to anyone when he said it?

Of course, what tickled me more was when he turned around the next day and spent all of that and so much more, pledging $100 Billion to the IMF...

...

EDIT:
I wonder how many pennies would represent earmarks, so decried by McCain and other politicians who want to appear fiscally conservative without actually proposing cuts in anything substantial.

Anyone who knows anything about government spending knows that Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and Defense Spending make up the vast majority of expenses. So anyone who proposes a cut in something that isn't one of those three institutions is not proposing much of a cut at all.

Well, earmarks isn't exactly a blanket code for all spending. I think the problem is, politicians like to take projects that couldn't possibly stand up under scrutiny on their own – and, in many cases, probably should be handled by local government, either way – and tuck them discreetly into much larger bills. Also, as an outsider, it seems to me that a lot of times these earmarks are used as a sort of currency, buying votes for sometimes otherwise objectionable ideas by including the occasional pet project.

[J Arcane]

That is an awesome video right there.

[Ox]

I wonder how many pennies would represent earmarks.
According to WaPo (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/11/AR2009031101499.html), earmarks may make up as much as $18 billion of the total budget in 2009. So I think that works out to 7.2 pennies.

[Vandabo]

This kind of thing is the reason I get so enraged watching the news. So often they just rattle off some number that is going to be added or cut from a given program, but rarely tell you what the original budget was or any other information that gives you a way of putting it in context.

[Ravenlock]

Bravo, guy who made that video. Well done.

[Johan]

I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

[Narradisall]

Having had months of billions and trillions in loans, bailouts, spending plans etc from countries all over the globe, to me 100 million doesn't seem like much regardless of who says it.

[Talanvor]

I would like to see him represent how many of those pennies goes to the DoD, Medicaid and SS.

Honestly, the only thing that makes sense to me is to stop buying so much goddamn expensive military hardware that doesn't get used. Unfortunately, if Obama even touched that money, he'd be roasted alive.

Edit: And just to add on to the video's mini-rant about Canadian currency ruining ours, remember tokens? Yeah, I remember putting $5 bills into the token machine and getting motherfucking Canadian quarters, or whatever the quarter sized currency is/was. Of course none of the arcade machines would accept them. Gah!

[Raen]

While not exactly shocking, it was useful to get a sense of scale in general.

[alienmastermind]

I like this.

But, I have to agree with Vandabo about the numbers being enraging most times.

"And this project has been bloated, coming in over 1000 times what it was budgeted."

Okay, this statement sounds dire. But if it's for say, a platinum bicycle that flies (or perhaps the laser-jet), and the budget agreed for it was 50,000 when the projected cost of PBTF was 5.6 billion, you can see how it comes in 'over-budget'.

Also, there's so much wasteful spending in Defense, that's not really waste...like the 50 dollar hammers that are actually derived from labor and building costs spread out over a project that might be vital (like our permanent bases in Iraq, which are required for any realistic peace in the region or our nuke schools for Navy subs). Reagan got a lot of flak for that 50 dollar hammer crap, and he didn't deserve it.

[Generation ABXY]

I would like to see him represent how many of those pennies goes to the DoD, Medicaid and SS.

Um, didn't he? I thought all of that was represented by everything before the white line...

[Talanvor]

Um, didn't he? I thought all of that was represented by everything before the white line...

I meant each of those, specifically from each other and the rest of the budget. Not just a big mass of here's all the money we can't touch, and it's part of several programs.

[Generation ABXY]

I meant each of those, specifically from each other and the rest of the budget. Not just a big mass of here's all the money we can't touch, and it's part of several programs.

Ah, I see.

[Ox]

Honestly, the only thing that makes sense to me is to stop buying so much goddamn expensive military hardware that doesn't get used.
I believe the point of buying so much goddamn expensive military hardware is precisely to ensure it doesn't get used. If we ever have to use our carrier groups, that pretty much proves we didn't buy enough.

[ShivaX]

I believe the point of buying so much goddamn expensive military hardware is precisely to ensure it doesn't get used. If we ever have to use our carrier groups, that pretty much proves we didn't buy enough.

Well alot of it is budget overruns as well, which both sides seem to mostly be in favor of reigning in.

[alienmastermind]

Re: Budget Overruns...

Doesn't it work like this? I give you a budget of 6 bucks to find me a pizza. There's Little Caesars, but not much else, and since the 6 bucks is coming out of everyone's pocket, we need more than one pizza.

If you then spend more of the group fund doing what we actually asked, you did go over budget, but did what you were told. If you fail, it's because you adhered to the letter of the law.

Man, now I want a pizza.

[Superman's Dead]

Maybe it was just the result of liberal-leaning professors and liberal-leaning videos in my liberal-leaning classes...but the IMF makes me feel like Darth Vader walks the Earth.

[ShivaX]

Re: Budget Overruns...

Doesn't it work like this? I give you a budget of 6 bucks to find me a pizza. There's Little Caesars, but not much else, and since the 6 bucks is coming out of everyone's pocket, we need more than one pizza.

If you then spend more of the group fund doing what we actually asked, you did go over budget, but did what you were told. If you fail, it's because you adhered to the letter of the law.

Man, now I want a pizza.

No its more like you give me 6 bucks for a pizza and I come back and say I need 600 for the pizza I said I'd get you for 6. I didn't realize the pizza place was so far away so I had to rent a car and then the pizza place was closed so I drove to the next state over.

[Johan]

Budget deficits as far as the eye can see. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/business/economy/04debt.html?_r=1&hpw)

China grows tired of funding our profligacy. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i4estRSYeFBIII9kezxnP4jgoGZQ)

[Bingley Joe]

I would like to see him represent how many of those pennies goes to the DoD, Medicaid and SS.

I meant each of those, specifically from each other and the rest of the budget. Not just a big mass of here's all the money we can't touch, and it's part of several programs.

This is pretty eye-opening, and is pretty much exactly that (use your mousewheel to zoom in)

http://www.wallstats.com/deathandtaxes/