It doesn’t get much simpler than this:
Fiscal 2011 Budget: $3,800,000,000,000
Fiscal 2011 Deficit: $1,300,000,000,000
Savings achieved by “tough choices”: $20,000,000,000
Share of budget those savings represent: 0.5%
From a January 30 post titled Tough Choices by White House Communications Director Daniel Pfeiffer:
In the 2011 Budget we will release on Monday we terminated or reduced programs that weren’t working well or duplicated efforts, some in areas that are important to the President and to the Administration.
Last year, President Obama sought to end or reduce 121 programs for a one-year savings of approximately $17 billion of which $11.5 billion was from discretionary savings. Congress approved cuts that produced a net discretionary savings of $6.8 billion, nearly 60 percent of the discretionary cuts proposed. . . . This year, we are proposing more than 120 terminations, reductions, and savings for approximately $20 billion in savings this year.
For perspective, cutting a $3.8 trillion budget by 0.5% is the equivalent of a household that spends $2,500 per month making “tough choices” that add up to $13 saved.
