Obama’s budget-cutting tools
Barack Obama announced that he will snip a whopping one-half of one percent of the $3.4 trillion budget. Knock me over with a feather.
Which best symbolizes Obama’s budget-cutting tools?
1) Plastic knife:
2) Spork:
3) Broken scissors:
4) Toy chainsaw:
5) One more nominee via Brian Faughnan…Baby nail clippers:
***
Related: Obama’s Budget Knife Yields Modest Trims
Posted in: Barack Obama
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- Michelle Malkin » Obama slashes anti-union corruption budget at DoL
- Flowbee: Obama's Cost Cutting Tool
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- Obama Presents $3.4 Trillion Budget, Says He is Fiscally Responsible…
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Categories: Barack Obama
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Off-Topic, but not by much — Taxachusetts Giving Free Cars to Welfare Recipients.
It’s like cutting butter with a splinter
I think Oboingo and his minions are the tools.
What kills me is the average american really thinks he’s saving them money. As
I said you have to hear the word manipulation of this guy.
Obama Proposes Saving $17 Billion by Cutting Programs (Update1)
By Roger Runningen and Brian Faler
May 7 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama is seeking $81 billion more in
spending on domestic initiatives in his record $3.55 trillion budget plan while
calling on Congress to trim $17 billion worth of programs, including raising
more tax revenue from the oil and gas industries.
In a 1,360-page document released this morning, Obama proposes abolishing
preferential tax treatment for the two industries as part of a package of 121
federal programs the administration wants to eliminate. Doing so would generate
about $26 billion over the next decade.
The plan fills in some of the details of the budget blueprint the administration
released in February that has already been adopted by Congress. The new items
are mainly areas where Obama is seeking cuts, which some lawmakers said weren’t
enough to begin whittling down a deficit projected to reach $1.38 trillion in
fiscal 2010.
“These savings, large and small, add up,” Obama said in remarks after the
release of the budget documents. “And this is just one aspect of the budget
reforms and savings we are seeking.”
Unlike past years, the administration won’t release until May 11 its “analytical
perspectives” or “historic tables” that help explain its spending decisions and
put them in context. Obama repeated his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the
end of his term in 2012.
Meeting Resistance
Even with the proposed cuts amounting to only about one- half of 1 percent of
the total budget, Obama is confronting resistance in Congress and from interest
groups seeking to keep alive favored programs. In 2008, then-President George W.
Bush, working with a Democratic Congress, proposed ending or reducing 141
federal programs. Of those, 29 were terminated or trimmed for a savings of about
$1.6 billion.
“Every government program — no matter how wasteful — will be defended by its
recipients and congressional champions,” said Brian Riedl, a budget expert at
the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based research group. “Unless Obama puts
the weight of the White House behind his spending cuts, Congress will ignore
them.”
Senator Kent Conrad, the Democratic chairman of the Budget Committee, said in a
statement that Obama’s program cuts were good as far as they go but “we
shouldn’t lose sight of the far larger threat” to the U.S. budget from the
soaring costs of health care, which is rising about 8 percent a year, according
to the Congressional Budget Office.
`Massive’ Spending
“They are adding back in massive amounts of spending” compared with the $17
billion in reductions, said Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.
“You’re taking a little teaspoonful of water out of the ocean while you’re
dumping a whole river in.”
Though the White House is trying to focus public attention on cuts, federal
spending is on the rise. The blueprint Congress adopted last week provides for a
9 percent increase in domestic discretionary spending and a 4 percent defense
increase.
Under the oil and gas program, Obama said he would “cut unjustified tax
loopholes” by repealing various preferences covering marginal wells, drilling
costs manufacturing deductions, among other benefits.
If approved by Congress, the industry would be placed on the same tax footing as
other companies. The repeal would take effect Jan. 1, 2011.
Half the savings come from defense programs, and half from areas outside the
Pentagon. Some program cuts or terminations have been announced earlier.
Yucca Mountain
The administration is proposing saving $91 million by eliminating funding for
plans to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
“How the nation deals with the dangerous byproduct of nuclear reactors is a
critical question that has yet to be resolved,” the request says. “The nation
needs a better solution that the proposed Yucca Mountain repository.” The budget
plan requests $197 million to explore other options for disposing of the
material.
The administration also proposes to pare a terrorism risk insurance program
created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. The budget request calls for
reducing the “excessive federal subsidy” to private insurers beginning in 2011,
generating $21 million in savings that year and a total of $263 million by 2014.
“As of 2008, the property and casualty insurance market has improved its ability
to absorb losses from a terrorist attack,” the request says. “By reducing an
insurance market subsidy, the proposal encourages the private sector to mitigate
terrorism risk through other means such as building safer buildings.”
`Positive Step’
Representative Dennis Cardoza, a California Democrat, yesterday called the
administration’s plan a “positive step” to try to “bring this whole thing into
some kind of fiscal balance.”
“I am not going to agree with all of it,” said Cardoza, a member of his party’s
fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition. “I certainly applaud their looking at
government waste and trying to eliminate” unnecessary spending.
Lawmakers on April 29 adopted a $3.55 trillion outline for the 2010 budget that
embraces Obama’s top agenda items, including a health-care overhaul, a push for
renewable, clean- energy sources and changes in education funding.
Includes OnStar, unlimited gas and maintenance, no doubt. and of course a free insurance policy.
Like cutting back an overgrown oak tree with nail clippers.
Baby Stalin is still a pretender to the throne, still a poseur.
I think a rubber chicken is a good analogy.
All style, big joke, no backbone.
Like cutting the moon in half with a Ginsu knife.
He’s saving me money? It’s my money, let me save it.
Maybe spork, but I’ll go with left handed scissors used by a right handed person:
Amusing to watch the confusion and futility.
can we just get links, rather than the entire article?
thanks.
We need a scalpel, not a hatchet, remember? So maybe one of those plastic scalpels from a toy doctor’s kit.
Why is some of the media reporting $3.4 Trillion and some reporting $3.55 Trillion as the budget today?
Here are 2 stories from today on this subject by ABC and one reports $3.4 Trillion and another $3.55 Trillion
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=7524443
yet a different number here.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/05/potus-17-billio.html
Here is one that reports $3.55 Trillion
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFoD4LsL9QPE&refer=worldwide
Last week all were reporting $3.55 Trillion, so were did $155 Billion go to in a week?
Keep working, folks. The deadbeats need gas to fill the tanks of those “free” cars. They have to be able to make it to the KFC to get their “free” Oprah-provided chicken dinners. Then, off to the liquor store, with a stop by the crack-house on the way home.
Obama’s budget cuts amount to a drop in the bucket. Big deal, Barry.
‘…Last week we put Liquid Paper on a bee……….it died.”
Toy chain saw, definitely. It looks real nice and makes a lot of noise, but actually does nothing.
When we really need a Jason Voorhees, we get the Incredible Mr. Limpett instead!
Ready, FIRE!,. . . . . aim. I see Obama is going after the military budget like a drug addict going after a line of cocaine. Yeah, who needs all those frilly fighter planes and all that stupid research and development that keeps us ahead of everyone else in the world. I guess our president is too busy on his knees licking the boots of France, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. to concern himself about defense. I mean, come on now, we are just one big happy world family now, right?
I think the best symbol is a genuine Homelite chainsaw, but with no chain. Makes all of the right noise. Really looks and sounds like he’s doing something.
But, in fact, he’s doing nothing.
Odopey, the Barney Fife of Presidents.
Don’t give him a knife it may be loaded.
Given that it’s just about his level of competence, I think kiddie scissors should do the trick.
Sure, let’s cut all the necessities like defense and a border fence. But don’t cut any wasteful spending. Oh, I forgot. Defense and a border fence is wasteful spending.
I think that Obama was using a herring…
I heard Obama’s announcement on the radio. With a $3.5trillion budget and massive deficit, now he’s a budget hawk because he’s reducing an insignificant sum from his spending spree. Boy, do they think that Americans are stupid or what?
Remember how the media joined Democrats in thrashing President Bush when he wanted to shore up Social Security in 2005?
Imagine how they would have reacted had a member of President Bush’s cabinet even hinted at reductions in growth for the “third rail” of Medicare/aid – the NYT and NBC News would have gone nuts in denouncing him as insensitive to the needs of the poor and an unfeeling elitist.
Oops! The quote is from Yahoo News, MM’s link.
Here’s a Photoshop opportunity for someone…
I think the symbol for President Obama’s budget-cutting tool should be a Nerf Scalpel.
How about a water pik?
A plastic spoon; you know, the one that breaks the first time you try to use it.
That’s Obama.
A swimming pool noodle?
The Elder Wand?
Personally, I’m voting for King Arthur’s herring.
You guys just don’t understand. He is seeding the budget with tax cuts that will grow as they take effect. Think of it as an small investment for the future. Think of the children.
Cutting the budget with sharp rhetoric, biting words and a keen rapier wit.
With all the huffing and puffing, you would think they are going to bail out the sinking ship…but when they show up, all they have is the handle of the bucket and the ring the handle is attached to with…no bucket.
This way they can show the exertion and you can see the results.
Barak loves his toy chainsaw.
Bingo
Watching all of this garbage from the Obama administration is like watching a bad movie or living a bad dream. Unfortunately, for US it’s real. I feel like I am in the slow animated state as you fall over a cliff and can’t do anything to stop it (that is considered legal) as your watching yourself fall.
Only thing he can cut is the cheese…stinks the place up.
Errah, I just bought stock in printers ink, paper and printing press parts. These are the only sectors of the economy that will see any growth in 09 and 10.
It’s like saying you’re on a diet with your mouth full of donuts.
Ode to the Commander in Chief’s ruthless budget cuts:
Gentle blossom,
cutting budget,
like snow falling
on a volcano
he’s still looking for the on switch….a kid in a candy store without a clue of the real world….
His cuts are a joke. Like his presidency.
These are not cuts. He’s just moving the money around and spending it elsewhere.
Hope-a-Dope is like the shopping addict who maxes-out your credit card and then gets upset when you focus on how much she spent instead of how much she saved.
Somehow, an old Frank Zappa song (”Flakes”) seems more and more appropriate to the present day:
We are millions ‘n’ millions
We’re coming to get ya
We’re protected by unions
So don’t let it upset ya.
Can’t escape the conclusion
It’s probably God’s Will
That civilization
Will grind to a standstill
And we are the people
Who will make it all happen
While yer children is sleepin’,
Yer puppy is crappin’
You might call us Flakes
Or something else you might coin us
But we know you’re so greedy
That you’ll probably join us
We’re comin’ to get ya
We’re comin’ to get ya
We’re comin’ to get ya
We’re comin’ to get ya….
I worked it out. its 0.47222%. If you DON’T count the stimulus bill and everything else he has spent since 1/20/09.
I didn’t include that because quite frankly, I lost count.
Trimming costs is withdrawing tax policy (not a “loophole”…that’s just a tax deduction for the other guy) for oil and gas exploration…?!?!?!?
CAN these people speak anything LIKE the truth…????
Lesse…
HIGHER TAXATION ON OIL AND GAS =
LESS OIL AND GAS AND HIGHER PRICES FOR CONSUMERS
I admire the ability of anyone on Obama’s staff who is able to discuss this plan with a straight face.
They are either superbly disciplined, have no “sense of humor” gene or are a robot.
Large amounts of Botox paralyze facial muscles….
…the edge of lgm’s brain.
Obama seeks to double tax law enforcement budget
Physician, heal thyself.
like using a lint brush on a maternity dress
Paul Revere–do you work in my office??!
More like trying to mop up a feed-lot with one roll of single-ply TP.
Now that I think about it, I think the Spork represents the best. I mean it works for both Spending and Pork!
You call yourself an epicure.
A word you really dig.
At last you have found a word.
That has more class than pig.
Ah, haiku.
Gesundheidt!
Obama believes in debt as the yoke to keep the populace in line.
Early on politicians realized that there was little holding any country together, so they took the idea that most people, americans in this case, would always work hard to pay off the debt of their nation. So for decades the politicians pushed the debt higher as a monetary, “my bad, Im sorry” but we must work harder to pay this off. Thereby fooling the populace into keeping their nose to the grindstone.
Obama has simply taken this game of one-upsmanship to a new level. I submit his reasons are different from those of his predecessors in the presidency. However the hoped for result is the same.
Well what if we don’t work harder? Wha if we say, “spend it”. Our kids and grandkids can work two or three jobs for the Chinese if they have too or they can take a day off. Or just line up for welfare. Who would care? Don’t worry about going hungry, just go to a government shcool and share a free lunch with your kids.
Obama has promised he will take care of us. Well do it.
Look at your elected officials and tell them, “I WANT MINE AND I WANT IT NOW”
Go to your local social security office and file for benefits. As many as you can get. Isn’t this what a large portion of our society already does? Just get in line. Make a picnic out if it.
The government has promised they will take care of us. So do it.
We know they can’t and the truth is they know it too. It is time we called their bluff.
I vote ‘toy chainsaw’. It’s the only one that doesn’t actually cut anythin. Like Obama!
You failed to consider that half of the populace do not pay taxes (teet suckers). Where does that put us now?
I keep hearing that statistic. Does it include people like 6 month old babies? Or 95 year old retirees?
Just a quick response, Chap, so I don’t currently have a link, but it is my understanding that the statistic includes legally working Americans. Of those that are employed, 50% do not pay federal income taxes.
They do pay SS and medicare, but not income taxes. It will be a while before I can search for the info to link.
The progressive definition of tools used for deft or is it daft? cutting
Obama’s budget-cutting tools.
For a second there, I thought you were talking about his cabinet.
Cutting money from one program to put in another is not budget cutting, its fuzzy math.
BHO really is using a toy chainsaw and you thought it was just a joke.
*P-BO’s budget cutting tool is his mantra, which is “socialism knows no God but Government”; That is how he rolls; Remember, he is a generational thief, with all the tools and plenty of partners in crime; Our job is to continue to call them out, regardless of party, and lay the groundwork for a pendulum shift in 2010 and 2012.
Read this slowly.
Absolutely the funniest “joke” ever…….”AND IT’S ON ALL OF US!!!”
Let it sink in. Quietly we go like Sheep to slaughter…
Does anybody out there remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, during the Carter Administration? (a.k.a. Obama lite.)
Anybody?
Anything? No? I didn’t think so!
We’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which not one person reading this remembers.
Ready?
It was very simple, and at the time everybody thought it very appropriate.
The Department of Energy was instituted on 8-04-1977…TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL!
Hey, pretty efficient, huh?
It’s now 2009, 32 YEARS LATER, and the budget for this “necessary” department is $24.2 billion a year!!! The DOE has 16,000 federal employees, and approximately 100,000 ‘contract’ employees.
LOOK AT THE JOB THEY HAVE DONE! Change we could believe in, and a mission completed, no?
Once again, the Democrat Party is in charge, and NOW they are boldly taking over the banking system and the auto industry with the unions and progressive elitists at their sides.
Hasn’t it been the liberal left that’s been whining about “Big Brother” all these years? Who knew?
Obama’s budget cuts remind me of the furniture store that takes a $500 sofa, marks it up to $1,000 and then puts it on sale for $750 and convinces a lot of people that they are getting a bargain.
Of course, Obummer’s mark up is a lot more and his mark down a lot less.
We’re gonna face the chicken-home-roost thing when this gargantuan bill comes due and we all have to belly up to the bar…somewhere in the neighborhood of a 61.5% tax rate like GB.
Ouch! Shoot me already.
I think an electric nose hair clipper would fit, for a tool for Obama.
graysonret #66
but, but that’s electric… it would use energy. So, picture him using it going… vroom, vroom, vroom.
Errah, to a typical taxpayer it feels like he’s using an east german endoscope from 1949. Hopefully I’ll get a kiss and some flowers next April 15th.
Obama memo to white house staff:
“Thanks to all for the massive budget cut effort. Glad to hear none of you kids hurt yourself with the toy chainsaws and sporks. Now it’s off on a historic trip to a burger joint with Joe the Biden. Hold the Dijon if the cameras are rolling.”
That’s not a cut, that’s a scrape. Think dental tools.
Corrected for scale it would be like using the baby nail clippers to trim a rhinoceros horn, still attached to the rhino (not to be confused with rino, which is what got us here in the first place), who is not keen to have his horn trimmed.
Taking inspiration from this genius leadership, my household is planning on eating out every night at a five star restaurant for an entire year even though that doesn’t fit in our budget….however, we are going to cut back and eat at home one night each month. There you have it, savings even a Washingtonian could appreciate.
dOhbama’s budget cutter’s — Nose hair tweezers…
Gold plated of course…
That’s easy…Just raise the maximum eligible age for s-chip to infinity…
sarc
Wow, we can get everyone off of ADC too, just call them independent child-care subcontractors.
even more sarc
OT, but has anyone seen this?
http://degrees.classesusa.com/schools/23004-page1.cusa
Look at what it says on top!
I got to this page from an advertisement on the sidebar of facebook.
What’s the name of that thing marketed to women on TV to help them scrape the dead skin off their heels? It looks like a egg and you open it up to discard the dead skin? Oh, it’s the Ped Egg!!! To me, THAT best symbolizes an Obama budget-cutting tool.
PS – Tool jokes would be too easy with the fine collection assembled by this administration!!!
OW, OW jeeze another paper cut. That stiiiings!
Why is it that knuckleheads like yourself think it is ok to ignore the welfare state in the black community?
Have you ever lived near a predominately poor….black community? Or how about a Hispanic community? If you had then you would know the amount of money thrown at these communities to keep them voting for the dems by giving from my back pocket you MORON!
.. and of course, Shamulus is working just as intended …
Toy chainsaw is funny.
Obama the nerd was on this evening trying to act the cool guy rappin’ wid da normal folk at da hambugga joint. I thought he was going to give a speech trying to order a burger. Talk about a guy totally out of his protective envelope. He should have brought a teleprompter to help him step by step through the exotic and complex task of hamburger and drink ordering.
OK, let me see if I got this.
I have two dollars so I can buy a candy bar and a pack of gum.
I’m on my way to the register and I decide to trim one program so I put the candy bar back on the shelf.
Now, when I walk out of the store with the gum, did I actually save one dollar, or did I just not spend one dollar? Are the two really the same?
I didn’t spend so I didn’t get. But, is that actually saving?