President Bush's new 2008 budget boldly declares that "each program was closely reviewed to determine if it is among the Nation's top priorities.... [F]ailure to meet these criteria resulted in proposed termination or reduction of 141 programs for a savings of $12 billion."
Sounds pretty impressive, doesn't it? The president is proposing to eliminate or reduce all programs that aren't "top priorities." Wow!
But hold on. Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute has done the math.
Says Edwards: "Total federal outlays in 2007 will be $2.784 . Thus, programs that are "top priorities" of the Bush administration account for 99.6 percent of all spending."
So Bush proposes to ruthlessly chop away at all that non-top-priority federal spending -- the whole "whopping" 0.4 percent of it. Meanwhile, the 99.6 percent that is "top priority" will continue and grow. After all, it is a top priority.
Sounds pretty impressive, doesn't it? The president is proposing to eliminate or reduce all programs that aren't "top priorities." Wow!
But hold on. Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute has done the math.
Says Edwards: "Total federal outlays in 2007 will be $2.784 . Thus, programs that are "top priorities" of the Bush administration account for 99.6 percent of all spending."
So Bush proposes to ruthlessly chop away at all that non-top-priority federal spending -- the whole "whopping" 0.4 percent of it. Meanwhile, the 99.6 percent that is "top priority" will continue and grow. After all, it is a top priority.
Source: Cato Blog: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/
More on budget shenanigans:
http://www.reason.com/news/show/118632.html
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