Tapper Exposes Obama’s Budget Charade
By SusanUnPC on April 21, 2009 at 8:19 AM in Obama's Budget, President Barack Obama
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.
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The Obama and his handlers must think the American public is incredibly stupid. What a bunch of crap.
Let’s just pray that they stop and think, “Hey, wait a minute. $100 million sounds like a lot, until you think about the trillions Obama is asking for.”
Hell, the White House probably did a poll to find out which number would most impress the typical American.
I think there is a poll out there! Many people mistakenly think a 100 million is a billion, instead of 1000 million. Big numbers don’t follow the same logical progression we are all familiar with. Can you imagine the size of tea parties if media actually used numbers we are all familar with? Seven hundred thousand million dollar bailout of Wall Street. Or Obama’s thirty-seven million millions budget. ( Not sure I did the math right on the last one…..too many zeros.)
Here’s the REAL question:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vohNUTTx3A
I wish Tapper said to Gibbs “You numnuts! 8 billion is MORE than 100 million! And 4 trillion in debt is even more than that!”
My math skills were not totally destroyed by my public school education–duh!
It is getting bizarre. You cannot make this stuff up.
Forgive me, but look at the results of this last election. Obviously, there are 69 million people who bought this kool-aid hook, line and sinker. Why should the Administration feel that anyone of them has wised up?
The media has also been enabling this line of nonsense with no vetting for 16 months and keeps running interference, so that people of all parties, who do try to speak up, are vilified and marginalized.
Right because it is not what Obama does that is of the moment to any of those people you referenced but rather that HE himself is what is important to them.
enough of them are.the ones that voted for the fraud.
Tapper has really become a shining star in the media. He has been doing an excellent job. I find him to be very fair, even when he supports Obama on certain things. He goes after him when need be, and he points out the good things as well. I appreciate his ability to point out the good and the bad because it doesn’t just seem like butt kissing, on one side or the other. You can’t believe the majority of other jouranlists because they are SOOO one sided, their support of Obama is just blind liberal support.
He is one of the only actual network journalists I really listen to anymore.
Gibbs has just become a joke. I don’t think any of the reporters seem to take him seriously anymore…
The cable news channels used to show more of Gibbs’s briefings, but they have cut way, way back. I think they realized that most viewers were changing channels or, like me, fast-forwarding through that ignoramus’s droning.
Here’s Jake Tapper on “President Beefcake”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/president-beefc.html
where is my barf bucket??
My wife, who hates Obama, was fooled by the announcement of the $100 million cut. Obama is capable of fooling a lot more than some of the people some of the time. Thats why he is president.
I heard yesterday on TV that Homeland Security will be able to save more than half of that with cutting 52 million on office supplies. Now, how whacked is your budget with bloated waste if you can save 52 million dollars at Staples? While back in the real world- the rest of us at the office have to shake printer and copier cartridges to get a few more pages out and poor school district ask parents for toilet paper donations!
No kidding. Ya got that right!
Bless you, Tuppence411, for your great comment. You have nailed it exactly. I am appalled by the waste from both parties — our elected representatives sure are cavalier spending other people’s money.
If their salaries, health care or ability to get a lobbying or other kind of job when their elected terms were over were tied to how frugal they were with our dollars, you’d see a huge difference.
No accountability. Business as usual.
HOT DAMN…….100 million…………Now Obama can get his Chinese food delivered from Beijing.
That’s funny!!!!
Speaking of the press, Eugene Robinson won a Pulitzer Prize for columns with such Greatest Hits as:
What’s Gotten Into Bill? Why the former president has traded silver-maned statesmanship for red-faced anger.
and
Cards From a Worn-Out Deck Playing the race card against Barack Obama didn’t work out quite the way Bill Clinton had hoped.
and
If Obama Went 0-for-10 . . . How long will it take Hillary Clinton to realize that she has almost no chance in this election?
It just never ends, does it.
The only requirement for the Pulitzer prize is to be more liberal than anyone else. Journalism not required.
Paul Krugman was a finalist in this category for his columns on the financial crisis.
No, I think this was for O supporters only.
I can agree w cuts, large and small. But that DOES NOT EXCUSE THE PORK SPENDING!!
Glad to see at least two reporters holding this administrations feet to the fire.
The Obot trolls will be here sooner rather than later to defend this.
I liked the exchange “so $100 million is alot of money but $8 billion is miniscule”??
I’m just guessing that soon will come this propaganda from Obama co: “criticizing the president makes our country weak.” Wait for it, it will come soon to an MSM theater near you. As soon as enough people start noticing that Obama is as stupid, and shallow and inadequate (and a general crook, to boot)
as we have known all along, and the old classics start to have less effect on the confused (the old classics being the r card, the “but he’ll do this”,
“he’s just going along so he can..”)– we will then be told over and over and over (as only the MSM can do) that criticizing the Chosen Chump will harm our country.
Well, the latest I’ve heard, from a friend, is that it’s uncool to criticize the one because he’s a symbol to people, and it’s important to respect that. Gag! And this friend didn’t care he may have been born outside the U.S., that he is lying about being raised Muslim (this is racism for me to raise these issues)that we’ve seen none of his records, that he has no experience. Thank God for No Quarter, land of the sane!
It isn’t easy being among the sane. Sometimes I wish I had just drunk the kool aid so I could be clueless, too!
Believe me, I’m with you. Sometimes I think being an clueless Obot would be bliss.
There was a point in time when we were told that criticizing the war in Iraq was equally uncool, even unpatriotic. Seems to me I remember that same meme being spun during Vietnam.
But I agree, I also think how much easier and comforting it would be to drink the kool-aid. There’s truth in the saying “ignorance is bliss.”
But then, I always hated kool-aid, even as a kid. Too sweet. Rots your teeth out.
And don’t forget the billions in AIG bonuses that the Obots claimed was just a tiny fraction of the total TARP bill and all that outrage about them was just faux GOPer anger.
Tapper tops my least unfavorite MSM reporter list. He has periodic flashes of honesty. However, he is the guy who saw fit to tweet Levi Johnston gossip from the G20 trip so he has more fences to mend with me.
Dr. Evil: Why make a trillion when we could make… billions?
Scott: A trillion’s more than a billion, numbnuts.
sarahinintaly
It doesn’t matter what type of questions Tapper is asking Gibbs or Obama because at the end of the day, he is still an Obama media hack. Why do I say that? During the primaries, he was a cheer leader for BO. I remember criticizing him on his blog “Political Punch” for his unfairness to Hillary. My responses “mysteriously” were never posted after that.
One more thing, Tapper along with other media cultists reported excitedly about Hugo Chavez’s book being #2 on the Amazon book list after he gave a copy to Obama. This current WH press corps needs to be fired.
Chavez book sales ascending quickly paints an accurate picture of Obot mentality, no?
i didn’t watch him during the primary… that doesn’t make me happy. do you have any stories/links i can read?
I don’t have any links, but whatever his prior reporting was, it remains valid to appreciate ANY honest reporting about The One.
Honestly, Jake Tapper, can go fuck himself the way he cheerleaded for Obama and attacked Hillary Clinton throughout the election cycle.
We should never forget that the entire journalistic establishment was an Obama cheerleading squad back in the day. Not unlike the way they were cheerleaders for GW until public sentiment started to swing away from Shock and Awe.
The term “media whore” comes to mind. The days when the press was respected may have been a myth right from the start. But now, it’s just another puzzle piece in The Big Lie. I don’t trust any of them.
Do the math folks, to figure out the “WHY $100 Million”?
Obama has approximately 200 weeks left in power, that means 200 Wedsnsdays to go for $500,000 pizza parties, so the math is grade school:
200 X $500,000 = $100,000,000.00
wake me when it’s over
If they ever remake PeeWee Herman… They ought to consider Gibbs for the part… “I know you are but what am I”. He paraphrases that line daily. It never gets old apparently.
Thank you Tapper.
As i said in an email I sent out,
“Isn’t it funny, even though Obama claims he didn’t know anything about the hundreds of thousands of American citizens attending Tea Parties across the country, he is now asking for Congress to cut a measly 100 million from the 3.5 Trillion budget as if we are all so stupid to think that really will make any impact to this incredible spending. When he even laughed during the General Election, when John McCain called for an end to earmak spending, that Obama’s requested 1 Billion dollars in earmarks, in his short 4 year Senate career, would not make a dent in our deficit.
Gee, isn’t 100 million just 10 percent of 1 billion? I guess it’s true, he was running for office, he says anything, “there you go”, Obama.
They’re new budget will quadruple the national debt but they’ll cut the debt in half in four years.
Sounds like someone should have gone to math class instead of law school. But then again, this is just the type of math Little Timmy and cohorts must love.
If I save a penny on every dollar I spend, will I be out of debt in my lifetime?
only if you are not in debt to begin with.lol.
American Girl in Italy
Political Punch is Tapper’s regular blog at ABC News online. I haven’t read any of his blogs for over 9 months. Any journalist in this WH press corps especially the reporters new to this beat (Tapper, Chuck Todd, Huffington Post, etc.) are all Obama hacks. If they decided to do any “real” investigative reporting about Obama (Acorn/Census, stimulus bills, union/card check, Chavez, WH parties) they probably would be replaced.
I can’t say that I’m familiar with how Tapper acted during the primary campaign re: Hillary but I do agree with those who find him to be the most objective TV correspondent right now. He has criticized Obama way more than any of the others have. In fact, I sent an e-mail to ABC News just yesterday to praise his objectivity, especially when compared to his peers.
Regarding Gibbs, he reminds me of Scott McClellan i.e. bland and ends up offering the least amount of information possible. His response that “$100M is a lot of money where I come from” is condescending and ridiculous.
To me, the most interesting and least annoying Press Secretaries in recent times were Mike McCurry and Tony Snow.
Obama is counting on our public school indoctrination. After all, it’s really hard to think.
To calculate what percentage of the deficit/bailout/budget is the $100,000,000 BO wants his cabinet Secretaries to ‘find,’ take whatever figure you come up with and divide this into the one hundred million. For example, the 8 billion in earmarks Tapper complained Gibbs had previously referred to as a minuscule part of the $410,000,000,000 “appropriations bill” is $8,000,000,000. So, to see what percentage 8 billion is of 410 billion, divide 8 by 410. You get 0.0195%, or .000195. To find what percentage of that same stimulus bill is $100,000,000, divide .1 by 410 – here, we are dividing billions into millions – and get .0002%, or .000002.
In simple terms, its like a CEO that, with salary and bonus, got a check for a cool $100 million. He later decides to go on an economy kick and skips stopping at Starbuck’s for coffee one day out of 365. Proud of his “savings”, he goes out and buys a $500 million yacht bragging that he couldn’t have bought the yacht if he hadn’t saved the $3.75 from Starbuck’s. Call it Øbama math.