Obama Worked to Cut a Billion Dollars!

I just couldn't pass up this gem. Obama, in his convention speech accepting the Democrat nomination to run for president of the US in the upcoming election, said the following:

And last summer I worked with Republicans in Congress to cut a billion dollars in spending, because those of us who believe government can be a force for good should work harder than anyone to reform it so that it's leaner and more efficient and more responsive to the American people.

Let's take a look at that statement. Obama triumphs the idea that he's saved the US one billion dollars. While saving a billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at, in the perspective of the federal budget it amounts to nothing but a sneeze.

The Congressional Budget Office shows the budget for 2011 ran about $3.708 trillion dollars, with a deficit for the year of $1.48 trillion. Obama and his hard work with the Republicans took that budget and saved the American people a whopping one billion dollars.

Putting that in terms that you and I can understand, remember that a trillion dollars is one thousand billion dollars. If we reduce the trillions into numbers that make sense, let's say we have enough money to spend $2,228 on a new high-end computer. We go to the electronics store and negotiate a price. The salesman tells us that the computer we want will cost $3,708 instead of the 2,228 we had planned on. So, we end up putting $1,480 on our credit card. Subsequently, we're not very happy with the deal. We complain to the salesman and decide we should back out of the deal.

"I'll tell you what," says the salesman. "I'll sweeten the deal for you. I'll reduce the total price of the computer by one dollar!"

How do you react to that kind of savings?

If you're a Democrat, you cheer and applaud.

If you're anyone else, you shake your head at the insanity of saving a dollar off of three thousand, seven hundred dollars.

This is Barack Obama's economics. He's the salesman trying to convince Americans that trimming a dollar off of our $3,708 budget is real savings. Of course such a statement about "savings" is ludicrous and disingenuous. Cutting a billion dollars from the budget cannot produce a "leaner and more efficient" government, especially when our deficit spending now regularly tops the trillion dollar mark.

The sad truth is, however, that many Americans are taken in by such rhetoric, never stopping to think of the implications of Obama's sales job on America.