That proposed $17 billion savings in the budget

So that President Obama guy announced that he had hacked $17 billion off of his record-setting spending spree of a budget for next year – less than 1/2 of 1% of the budget. He points out that he’s saving us from ourselves; (Reuters quote)

“We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits don’t matter and waste is not our problem,” Obama told reporters. “We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration or the next generation.”

Yeah, the “hard choices” like half of the budget cuts coming from the Department of Defense according both Reuters and Associated Press;

About half the budget savings would come from an effort by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to curb defense programs, including ending production of the F-22 fighter and killing a much-maligned replacement helicopter fleet for the president that’s way over budget.

Oh, so he’s going to sacrifice his own proposal to buy a slew of new helicopters to ferry him back and forth to Andrews Air Force Base and Camp David. That almost compares to cutting tankers and fighters, doesn’t it? I mean stuff that we need to defend ourselves with. Stuff the Constitution says that government is supposed to do.

But, the budget knife is aimed at critical social stuff, too;

On the domestic side of the ledger, an early childhood education program known as “Even Start” and a long-range radio navigation system that has been made obsolete by GPS technology were on the chopping block.

Other cuts included halting payments to states for abandoned mines that already have been cleaned up and cutting a Department of Education attache position in Paris.

So some DOE weinie is going to leave his cushy posting in Paris – big whoop. That’s almost like cutting fighters and tankers, isn’t it? Most of the cuts in domestic spending were dusted off from the Bush Administration;

Many of the cuts mirror those proposed previously by Bush but largely rejected by Congresses controlled by both Republicans and Democrats. In fact, Democrats already have pared about $10 billion from Obama’s appropriations requests in passing the $3.4 trillion congressional budget plan last month.

Oh, and the President’s promise to not raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 fell by the way side, too – he’s raising airport fees to cover the costs of posting those federal irritants known as TSA agents so they can continue to put my toothpaste in a baggie for me.

Like I’ve ben saying for months, when the Democrats threaten budget cuts, defense has to put their collective hand over their collective balls. Well, and that one Ed Department weinie in Paris.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Economy, Politics, Terror War