The $3.53 "Solution"

Here's something you can use with your friends and neighbors to put the disaster in perspective:

Philip Greenspun's Weblog » Understanding Congress’s solution to the federal deficit problem: "Let’s start with federal spending. The FY 2011 federal budget is approximately $3.82 trillion (3.82×10^12). Of that, approximately $2.17 trillion will be paid for by taxes collected and the remaining $1.65 trillion will be borrowed from our grandchildren. If we divide everything by 100 million, the numbers begin to make more sense.

We have a family that is spending $38,200 per year. The family’s income is $21,700 per year. The family adds $16,500 in credit card debt every year in order to pay its bills. After a long and difficult debate among family members, keeping in mind that it was not going to be possible to borrow $16,500 every year forever, the parents and children agreed that a $380/year premium cable subscription could be terminated. So now the family will have to borrow only $16,120 per year."

Except there's just one teeny problem. When the CBO audited the family, it said that they had already spent most of that cable subscription and were only going to save a total of $3.53 this year.

Not only is the $380 far too small to have an impact on their impending bankruptcy but the $3.53 is less than one penny out of every dollar of the 380 they claimed they were going to cut from the year's budget. I call b*llsh*t.