Budget Pennies Video

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/02/budget-pennies-video

This YouTube video shows pretty effectively that President Obama's budget cuts aren't that much in the great scheme of things.

A couple of corrections are in order, though. First, in the section on entitlement spending — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid — is the claim that President Obama couldn't cut that even if he wanted to. Not so — part of what a President does is try to get Congress to pass laws. These programs were created by laws enacted by Congress and signed into law by presidents, and the spending can be adjusted by laws, too. That was part of what Mr. Obama claimed to be doing in the health care law.

Second, the claim, "to the left of the blue line is money we have." This is quite a leap. The person talking on the video means tax revenues the government takes from the people. "We" have a lot more money, but this is "money the government takes" from its citizens, or the "money the politicians have available to spend."

by Ira Stoll  |  Feb 7, 2011 at 12:15 pm Related Topics:  Health Care, Politics, President Obama, Taxes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list