Greg Mankiw puts President Obama’s $100 million spending cut in perspective:
Just to be clear: $100 million represents .003 percent of $3.5 trillion.
To put those numbers in perspective, imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had be cut? By $3 over the course of the year–approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks.
(Via the Corner.)
UPDATE: Even Paul Krugman is calling the president out on this:
$100 million here, $100 million there. “Pretty soon, even here in Washington, it adds up to real money,” says the president.
Except, you know, really it doesn’t. Let’s say the administration finds $100 million in efficiencies every working day for the rest of the Obama administration’s first term. That’s still around $80 billion, or around 2% of one year’s federal spending.
(Via the Corner.)
Krugman calls it theater. That’s the polite word.
