Tapper Exposes Obama’s Budget Charade

Obama made a big show out of ordering his Cabinet “to come up with $100 million in savings,” But, reports the A.P. — and ABC’s Jake Tapper during the WH press briefing — it’s a ridiculously small part of Obama’s multi-trillion dollar spending plans.

The A.P.’s Spin Meter notes in “SPIN METER: Saving federal money the easy way,” that the “thrifty measures Obama ordered for federal agencies are the equivalent of asking a family that spends $60,000 in a year to save $6.”

Hot Air’s Allahpundit sets his tongue firmly in his cheek …

And he points out, in “Gibbs: Obama’s tiny, tiny budget cut is big money where I’m from“:

Note Tapper’s follow-up about how Gibbs, just weeks ago, found the idea of $8 billion in earmarks — 80 times the size of this budget cut — “minuscule” in the context of the appropriations bill. Oh, and also the footage of Obama urging his cabinet to cut another $100 million from each of their agencies. Using Greg Mankiw’s analogy, that amounts to … what? A week’s worth of Starbucks?

Tapper has the amusing transcript:

I interjected in an exchange between White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and another reporter today, so I’ve included their exchange (with my interruption) as well as my own.

JENNIFER LOVEN, AP:  The $100 million target figure that the president talked about today with the Cabinet, can you explain why so small?  I know he talked about — you know, you add up 100 million and 100 million, and eventually, you get somewhere, but it would take an awfully long time to add up hundred million (inaudible) in the deficit.  Why not target a bigger number?

GIBBS:  (Smiling) Well, I think only in Washington, D.C. is a hundred million dollars…

LOVEN:  The deficit’s very large.  It’s not a joke.

GIBBS:  No, I’m…

LOVEN:  The deficit’s giant.  $100 million really is only a step.

GIBBS:  But no joke.

LOVEN:  You sound like you’re joking about it, but it’s not funny.

GIBBS:  I’m not making jokes about it.  I’m being completely sincere that only in Washington, D.C. is $100 million not a lot of money.  It is where I’m from.  It is where I grew up.  And I think it is for hundreds of millions of Americans.

LOVEN:  The point is it’s not a very big portion of the deficit.

TAPPER:  You were talking about an appropriations bill a few weeks ago about $8 billion being minuscule — $8 billion in earmarks. We were talking about that and you said that that…

GIBBS:  Well, in terms of — in…(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER:  …$100 million is a lot but $8 billion is small?

GIBBS:  Well, what I’m saying is I think it all adds up just as the president said, just as Jennifer was good enough to do in her question. If you think we’re going to get rid of $1.3 trillion deficit by eliminating one thing, I’d be — and the administration would be innumerably happy for you to let us know what that is.

LOVEN:  Why not try to get a bigger number so you can get a…

GIBBS:  Well, let me explain sort of what has happened.  Let’s walk through this so that everybody understands this. The president has laid out cuts, large and small, in both the administrative costs and in the program costs of the federal budget. Some of the examples that we were — we provided you all will add up. For instance, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs either cancels or delays 26 conferences that can be better or more effectively and more cost effectively done by video conferencing that saves almost $18 million.

A lot of these administrative things will add up.  This is a short-term goal to come back with over the course of the next few weeks to identify further administrative savings that secretaries haven’t already both identified and eliminated.

The president has also proposed savings on a much larger scale. The president has proposed ending the bank middle man for college loans, saving $94 billion over a ten-year period of time.  The president has attacked, in his budget, the subsidies that we provide insurance companies to provide the same Medicare coverage — private insurance companies the same type of Medicare coverage that’s already being offered at a savings of over $200 billion.

Jennifer, the reason that the president can stand up with the backing of the Congressional  Budget Office and talk about cutting the deficit in half over the course of four year’s time is because there are cuts that are large, student loans and Medicare Advantage, as well as small. This is the part of the president’s promise and proposal to go line by line through the federal budget deficit.  Will we enumerate programs that don’t work that we’re going to eliminate in the future? Yes.  Some of those cuts will be large.  Some of those cuts will be small.

But we’re not going to put ourselves back on a path toward fiscal sustainability if we don’t look at each and every item in this federal budget and make some of the cuts that are necessary to get us on that path.

– From “Today’s Qs for O’s WH – 4/20/2009 – Political Punc,” ABC News, April 20, 2009

As they say, you can fool some of the people … but …

Memeorandum.com has an excellent list of more bemused reactions to Obama’s silly exercise which, seriously, is an insult to the American people’s ability to detect bull-oney from substantive budget vigilance.