Let's do some math!

If I had Jay Leno's staff of comedy writers, I couldn't have topped this LEAD story on Yahoo! News. Problem is, our President wants us to take him seriously while he gives us this material to laugh over.

Let's put ourselves back into the imaginary Ferris Bueller's high school classroom, shall we.............

Let's do some math to wake ourselves up this morning, class!

What is $787 billion plus $3.6 trillion, plus $2 trillion, which was in borrowed money (Treasuries) sold in the past 3 months? Anyone? Bueller? Yes Mr. Bueller, calculators ARE allowed...in the back of the classroom there...come up and write it on the board, please.

(the usual exaggerated student scribbling on the chalkboard)

$Six trillion, three hundred eighty-seven billion dollars. Thank you. Be seated please.

Now, what percentage of that figure is $100 million dollars? Watch those decimal points, kids. Yes, Sally? No, six tenths of one percent is wrong.

Bueller AGAIN, my, aren't we AWAKE this morning. Yes, you are correct, six ONE THOUSANDTHS of a percent, approximately.

Does anyone know the significance of this figure?

(waits for a full two minutes, gets no answer)

That, children, is the percentage of his spending so far that our President wants his administrators to save out of their current budget. Let's put it another way, kids: if you got an allowance of $1,000 per year, Mr. Obama would be asking you to save less than six dollars and forty cents out of it.

You could do that, Bueller? I wouldn't have guessed that.

Guess what, kids, we could probably save THIRTY TIMES that much and not get REALLY pinched.

No Mr. Bueller, I do NOT want you to demonstrate pinching, even if your neighbor Sally agrees to it, thank you.

Now, forgetting the Leno material for a moment, let's get back to the news article:

"The federal deficit for March alone was $192.3 billion, and $100 million would represent about one-twentieth of 1 percent of that. Obama has brought forward a $3.6 trillion budget for the 2010 fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1, a proposal that would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade."

That about says it all, doesn't it?

If THIS is what this Administration considers saving money, what would they consider extravagant spending?

Comments

[bob r]

I do believe you've got an arithmetic error in there:
(100E6 / (787E9 + 3.6E12 + 2E12)) * 100% =
(100E6 / 6.387E12) * 100% = 0.0016%

In words: 1.6 thousandths of a percent. In other words: about 1/4 as much as you were giving them "credit" for.

[David M]

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