When a cut is not a cut

A cut is not a cut when it is still an increase in spending.

For example: The govt spends 2T this year
The govt intends to spend 3T next year
- citizen outrage -
The govt agrees to only spend 2.8T and says hey look we cut spending 200B!

That isn't a cut...

For the more domesticated: Your wife spent $200 on shoes this year
Your wife wants to go shopping at Sax 5th Ave and wants to spend $500
- You explain your displeasure -
Your wife spends $350 and says but honey I SAVED you $150

So she still increased spending by 50% but "SAVED" $150 and declares that she "cut" her spending.

See how that doesn't work?

Here is how they do this: Baseline Budgeting

So they created a law...for themselves that lets them get away with calling an objective increase a theoretical cut...just because its a smaller increase!

Aaaaaand that is why pundits should be shot...they don't explain this shit to people. Of course this is also where the glib attitude of the politicians comes from as well. They don't explain this shit to you because you would be in a constant state of pout-rage and might actually decide to throw a revolution. The govt takes money from you by force and legislatively mandates increases. You can't extricate money from your employer by force of law and require increases just because you want to spend more.

See how this works? Yep this post is nearly over.

Base 0 Budgeting: Zeroing out your expenditures at the end of the year. This is how you and I do it. We have income year to year and we pay based on our yearly income and we budget based on that and not on theoretical increases that may or may not materialize because we cannot through simply saying "I EARN 1 MILLION DOLLARS" actually earn 1 million dollars.

So to get the govt budget under control...perhaps we ought to repeal the 1974 budget act. Perhaps amend it.

Either way, calling a smaller increase a cut is being disingenuous and ought to result in the speaker of such ambiguity being bitch-slapped for a solid hour while being recited lines from War & Peace or something like that. A real unusual but not entirely cruel punishment for being a douche-bag.