Obama should cut $100 million (and then some)

Much fun has been poked at President Obama since he challenged his cabinet to cut spending by $100 million over the next 90 days by cutting down on printed paper, turning off unneeded lights and other small means.

Two jabs stand out to me as my favorites. The fiscally conservative Republican Study Committee issued a press release about Obama's 0.0025 percent spending cut. And The New York Times report on Obama's challenge contained the following sentence: "Budget analysts promptly burst out laughing."

When compared to the trillion-dollar stimulus and pork programs, or Obama's $600 billion health care reform proposal, $100 million is a minuscule (even laughable) amount.

But Obama is right to challenge his cabinet to save $100 million over the next 90 days. At the end of that 90 days, he should challenge the cabinet to save $150 million over the following 90 days. The Congress should follow suit in its own bureaucracies (as should the state governments across the country).

The massive spending problems we've developed are, for the most part, creations of a long period of time. Each government entity has spend a little bit more, and a little bit more. We haven't had much success in making huge cuts; maybe it'll be easier to cut a little at a time.