advertisement

The world-famous Internet site of the Nationally Syndicated Neal Boortz Show!

Search Boortz.com
Enter search terms:
Browse Boortz.com
Today's Nuze

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

Nobody's listening.

COMPREHENDING OBAMA'S BUDGET

By
Neal Boortz
@ May 13, 2009 8:17 AM Permalink | Comments (31) | TrackBacks (0)

Byron York has an excellent column about Barack Obama's budget. It seems as though the problem is that Obama's budget is so large and ostentatious that the Republicans don't even know where to begin. If that is how the Republicans in Washington feel, imagine the average ignorant voter out there.

From York's column:

Republican strategists have a problem. The scale of what President Barack Obama proposes to do to the American economy is so enormous, so far-reaching and so potentially disastrous that the opposition party is having a hard time describing it.

"How do you translate the numbers into something that people can grasp to represent the broader problem?" a Republican pollster asked in a recent conversation. John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders would love to hear an answer, but the pollster didn't have one.

GOP message mavens are struggling with something that academics call "insensitivity to scope." It affects us all; we can understand something on a small scale but have a difficult time comprehending the same thing on a massive scale.

Insensitivity to scope is a major obstacle to understanding the Obama administration's $3.6 trillion 2010 budget. People simply have trouble understanding a number so big. A recent poll asked Americans how many million are in a trillion. Twenty-one percent of respondents got the answer right -- it's a million million. Most people thought it was a lot less.

There's more here .....

Categories:

Tags:

Main Index | Archives | RSS feed

0 TrackBacks

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: COMPREHENDING OBAMA'S BUDGET.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://boortz.com/blogging/mt-tb.cgi/30762

Jamie Dupree's Blog

If you enjoy Neal's daily chat with Jamie Dupree, you'll love Jamie's Blog! Check it out for analysis of the campaigns and goings on in Washington D.C.

Cristina Gonzalez and Laura Nunemaker assist in the daily preparation of Nealz Nuze!

Avg. rating: N/A

What others are saying

  • Obama's Spending
    Neal, The "average ignorant voter" might not be all that much dumber than the RINOs in D.C.
    By John Lewis @ 05/14/09 06:04:33 PMreport abuse
  • Porkulus/Budget Update
    Obama Scoreboard update:
    Jobs saved last week - 24,000
    Jobs not saved last week - 540,000

    Pass the Dijon, this Porkulus sandwhich tastes like crap.
    By $mooth Operator @ 05/14/09 03:34:41 PMreport abuse
  • Yep, your right...as usual, I spoke before I should have. Just another one of those dumbmasses I suppose...
    By Aaron @ 05/14/09 01:52:47 PMreport abuse
  • Aaron
    A million million would be adding 6 zeros onto a million. That does make it a trillion.
    By Joyce M/Blythe @ 05/14/09 12:40:55 PMreport abuse
  • million million??
    Maybe I am missing something but wouldn't it be a million million million; or one thousand billion?
    By Aaron @ 05/14/09 10:48:53 AMreport abuse
  • stimulus
    Has any reporter not on Fox News even asked themselves whether the stimulus is working? Here is an interesting read with unspinnable math that proves it isn't.

    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31849

    As a matter of fact, unemployment is actually higher WITH the stimulus than it was projected to be at this point without any government interference at all. This should remind us all not to trust politicians when they tell us they need more money "fast, because it is an emergency". There is a tipping point at which we will trust the government with just enough of our money that our liberties can only be taken back by force. I hope it doesn't come to that.
    By Jason @ 05/14/09 10:34:42 AMreport abuse
  • It's not the size of the numbers that matters
    It's what you do with it.

    If this was a 1.5 trillion dollar tax cut, aimed at reducing corporate taxes and lowering the top tax brackets, the economy would grow faster than at any time in history.

    When you tax something, you limit its growth, when you reduce those taxes, you expand its growth.

    This budget is designed at repaying favors. It will not benefit the average citizen, but only those people that have broken the law, or helped BO get elected, wait, I am being redundant.

    This is not an exercise in capitalism, but an exercise in favoritism. It won't work as a way of convincing producers to take risks.

    The more risks that producers take, the more they are punished.

    How is BO so smart again?
    By Reed @ 05/14/09 09:14:29 AMreport abuse
  • Republicans are not going to save us from this...
    cause there are members on both sides of the aisle that are complicit in the liquidation of America. They are helping the NWO complete its master plan. You guys have no clue. There is no left vs right. It is US vs THEM. We have to take our country back and I don't mean in the voting booth. No matter who you vote for they are going to do the bidding of the pupper masters.
    By Ivan @ 05/13/09 05:02:29 PMreport abuse
  • Huh?
    Obama: “I’ve said repeatedly that getting health care costs under control is essential to reducing budget deficits..."

    How will his health care plan reduce budget deficits? That is one of the items CAUSING the deficit. It wasn't in there before, now it is, that's a deficit if we can't pay for it.

    Talk about double speak.
    By Joyce M/Blythe @ 05/13/09 02:29:23 PMreport abuse
  • Carlos
    You are right! When I saw that there was a black man running for president and one that had a really good chance of winning it was exciting! "I thought Cool! Oh but wait he's a democrat, durn. Oh well it's still great, and how bad could he be. Gotta be better than Hillary."

    Oh how I miss Hillary. As bad as she is, I think we could still have overcome it better. This is going to be a hard mess to clean up.
    By Joyce M/Blythe @ 05/13/09 02:03:27 PMreport abuse
  • How about this
    Since the average mouthbreathing voter barely knows what he ate for breakfast, you need to put the number in pictures. As I said before, the GOP needs to realize, as the Dems already have a long time ago, that the average voter is an ignoramus. No math skills to speak of.

    That all said, they need to go to this website which shows, in pictures, what a trillion dollars looks like stacked using $100 bills. You will be shocked.

    http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html
    By Club-a-Liberal @ 05/13/09 01:32:12 PMreport abuse
  • I found this link helpfull
    [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt8hTayupE[/url]
    By Dean1268 @ 05/13/09 01:24:27 PMreport abuse
  • "Million" Million
    A colleague recently said that we should eliminate the words "Billion" and "Trillion" from the english language. At first I laughed, but it actually might help; force people to put such large numbers into context. Funny, but sad and true.
    By Joe @ 05/13/09 01:09:13 PMreport abuse
  • IF true, we need new GOP leadership
    The time has come and passed to ponder this monstrosity of a budget. It's really simple: stand on the rooftops and shout the truth! This budget is the undoing of the capitalist, free-market system that was once the U.S.A. and the dawning of national socialism. Say it like it is! And the failure of 79% of Americans to know what a trillion is just another victory for the left--keep the dumb masses ignorant in public schools, seize power, rule with an iron fist, destroy America.
    By $mooth Operator @ 05/13/09 01:06:15 PMreport abuse
  • insensitivity to scope
    Here's some quick and dirty numbers. If I had the information _quickly_ available I would have translated this into income taxpayer relevant numbers.

    Assume Average Salary is $50,000 per year
    How many years would it take an individual to earn the following amounts:

    Dollars Time
    --------------------------------------------
    One Million 20 years
    100 Million 2000 years
    One Billion 20,000 years
    10 Billion 200,000 years
    100 Billion 2,000,000 years
    One Trillion 20,000,000 years
    By John O'Brien @ 05/13/09 12:56:54 PMreport abuse
  • Economics
    The average person is an economic moron, and the average economic moron votes Democrat. Ergo, we have an economic moron for president. For more detail, check out "The Myth of the Rational Voter" by Bryan Caplan.
    By MeFein @ 05/13/09 12:37:01 PMreport abuse
  • When Pigs Fly?
    That's the cynical response to the question asked years ago concerning how long would it be before America had a black president. The real pity is that Obama is such an abysmally incompetent and dangerous president that America may never again vote for a black politician regardless of his or her ability and political beliefs. Obama has single handedly set back Dr. King's efforts by 40 years.
    By Carlos @ 05/13/09 12:36:19 PMreport abuse
  • Call it what it is..
    the Disaster of 2009. Just replace the term "budget" everywhere with "disaster," and it wll not only make for much better reading, but it will be far more accurate.

    I wonder what fed agency is going to have to clean up after this disaster? Does FEMA have any more trailers?
    By wxw101 (the Burque) @ 05/13/09 12:25:58 PMreport abuse
  • damifino @ 05/13/09 10:36:43 AM how about this.....
    "DITTO" I ALWAYS LOVED GETTING DIRTY!!
    By J Cooper @ 05/13/09 12:13:27 PMreport abuse
  • Scale the numbers to household levels
    Divide those huge numbers by the population and use the per capita numbers as something more manageable.

    Assuming a population of 307 million

    $ 1,750,000,000,000 deficit becomes $5,700 per capita
    $ 3,600,000,000,000 budget becomes $11,700 per capita
    $11,300,000,000,000 debt becomes $36,800 per capita
    $14,300,000,000,000 GDP becomes 46,600 per capita

    The nice thing about these per capita numbers is that they are close enough to the median household income that they are relevant.


    Of course this is just per capita, so your typical household of 4 becomes $22,800 deficit, $46,800 budget, debt $147,200 and GDP of $186,000

    This is a different way to look at your 'fair share' I thought I paid plenty in taxes, but I don't pay this much!
    By Ben Lund @ 05/13/09 12:04:24 PMreport abuse
  • please
    Obama and Rham know exactly what they're doing. 3.6 is not a high number, it's as simply as that. if they said they're spending 100 billion it would outrage people much more than the 3.6 trillion. As if they didn't plan it that way. Republicans keeps getting played by this administration. This is how Obama does things, he tricks people - every election he won, he won by pulling something shady. They need to figure it out because they're supposed to beat him in 2012. I don't see that happening at this point.
    By eve @ 05/13/09 11:31:32 AMreport abuse
  • Look at these stats
    I was inspired by this note and decided to figure out how big this problem is. Take a look at my spreadsheet.

    http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=r6PkPtN7VbDiuv3_y2F0cFw

    The $1.8 trillion dollar deficit is large enough to pay for the EVERY dollar of spending in EVERY state in 2008. That's right the combined state budgets in 2008 was 1.2 trillion -- and that was record spending! With the money from the deficit Obama could buy 86,636,364 Toyota Prius's or 184,184,184 Nissan Versa's (cheapest car sold in the US).

    That's enough to give one to every household in the US AND have over 68 MILLION Versa's left over!

    It’s enough Nissan Versa’s to circle the earth19.7 times!

    The numbers are so big that you could pay for the budgets of all 50 states ($1.2 Trillion) and still have enough money to buy EVERY household in poverty AND EVERY person without a job a Nissan Versa!
    By Boo @ 05/13/09 11:19:36 AMreport abuse
  • Republican Leadership Effort
    Everett Dirksen concerned about excessive spending warned, "A billion here a billion there - pretty soon you're talking about real money". The amount of his concern represented less than 1/2% of the virtually trillion dollar spending bill recently enacted.

    Perspective on a trillion dollars:

    A dollar bill is six inches in length, therefore 10,560 dollar bills arranged end to end would extend one mile. Divide one trillion dollars by 10,560 dollars per mile and the quotient is 94.7 million miles or the distance covered by a trillion dollar bills arranged end to end.

    Relative to Earth that distance is the equivalent of the following: 1.7 million miles beyound the Sun's surface, about 200 round trips to the Moon, or over 4,000 trips around the equator.

    Imagine you have eternal life, infinate endurance, and the ability to take celestial walks. At a normal walking pace of three miles per hour 24 hours per day 365 days per year you could reach the Moon in a little over nine years. At that same pace, you could reach the Sun in about 3,539 years and the end of a trillion dollar line in 3,603 years.

    So, if you had begun your walk in 1600 BC, you would have reached the trillion dollar mark sometime in 2003. The duration of your trip would have encompassed all of our recorded history. There, you would face a long walk home, with a projected return in the year 5606. Forturnately, you'd have a lot of time on your hands.

    No one in Washington seems to understand the size of a trillion. Suspect if given the choice, Senator Dirksen would prefer to remain is his grave insulated from this mess and from a government apparently 'stuck on stupid'.
    By Barley @ 05/13/09 11:17:35 AMreport abuse
  • how about this.....
    I've got a really unique, novel idea for the republican leadership(is that an oxymoron?)HOW ABOUT THEY TELL THE TRUTH!!! THAT THE BUDGET IS GOING TO DESTROY AMERICA AND THE CAPITALIST ECONOMY THAT DRIVES THIS COUNTRY.They need to shout this mantra at EVERY speech on the house floor,public town hall,EVERY TIME THEY OPEN THEIR MOUTHS!!!Repubs should take a lesson from the left and the media,THE ONLY WAY TO GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT IS TO SCREAM IT LOUD AND AT EVERY CHANCE YOU GET.They will of course be villianized,cursed at,demonized,made fun of and written off as extremist wackos(just like the right did to the extreme left, and you see where those wackos are now-in the drivers seat!!)IF YOU MAKE YOURSELF LOUD ENOUGH AND ANNOYING ENOUGH YOU CANNOT BE IGNORED.Even the MSM can't ignore it forever,their primoral urge for news will winout.The masses are stupid and if you don't hit them between the eyes with a thought every chance you get they won't pay attention. The right must NOT try to just get along and say wait till the next election cause they will be too deeply intrenched by then. EVERY leftist cause that is now in power today got there this way. IT WORKS!!!If you think we shouldn't "sink to their level" then resign yourself to being a loser and take your place at the government trough before the line gets too long but get the hell out of MY party,cause even if we're never in power again there is something in going down fighting(besides the I TOLD YOU SO factor to your Obama loving friends)THIS WILL WORK IF THEIR ARE ANY CONSERVATIVE LEADERS WITH THE BALLS TO THE WALL,ANYTHING GOES,DOWN AND DIRTY,GET'ER DONE GUTS OUT THERE.Our constitutional founders had'em.They put their lives and fortunes on the line and many lost everything.To bad most now are like sorry-ass Arlin Specter and just want to save their job. If you think I'm wrong,I DON'T CARE,POLITICS AND RUNNING A COUNTRY IS A DIRTY JOB AND IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET DIRTY THEN GET OUT THE WAY, GO LIVE IN OBAMA-LAND AND LET SOMEONE ELSE GET DIRTY.
    By damifino @ 05/13/09 10:36:43 AMreport abuse
  • Can anyone find where Neal was pissed about Bush gave all the money to Iraq to cancel the debt? I bet he was in sheer outrage about that.
    By Stan Gable @ 05/13/09 10:35:03 AMreport abuse
  • COMPREHENDING OBAMA'S BUDGET
    It's not me comprehending his budget ... it's that HE can't comprehend his "budget."
    By Laughing @ 05/13/09 10:25:31 AMreport abuse
  • emotions vs logic
    Obama is using, more like playing on, people's emotions to get his tyrannical measures to pass.
    Logically this stuff will hurt America and Americans in the long run.
    Democrats(including Copyleft) play on people's emotions to get their agenda accepted.
    Non Democrats,i.e. Libertarians, (Republicans used to but they became Democrat-lite recently), use logical thought.
    The problem is that while the Non Democrat is usually right logically, they lose because of one basic tenet from Des Cartes, "When there is a conflict between emotions and the mind (logic), emotions will always win." Hence, the Non-Democrat needs to find some sort of emotional way to market the logically sound agenda. Reagan did it. Bobby Jindal can do it. Sarah Palin can do it. Fred Thompson could if he put effort into it.
    By Rene Des Cartes @ 05/13/09 09:36:30 AMreport abuse
  • obama
    Dear Mr obama it has over 120 plus days on the job and you have not done well at this job so your services are no longer needed. We the people have decided we are going on strike for 2 weeks for the Fourth of July no work, no taxes.
    By Don @ 05/13/09 09:31:41 AMreport abuse
  • I'll tell them how to do it.
    Just express all of these numbers in terms of indiviuals or households. To say, "This plan is going to cost YOU PERSONALLY $10,000" is very powerful.
    By Skip Mayfield @ 05/13/09 09:25:42 AMreport abuse
  • No ones home
    I get the deer in the headlight look whenever I try to talk to anyone about this. It truly is difficult to comprehend something this big, not only in dollars but in scope. And we've only scratched the surface. I'm sure there are hidden goodies still to be discovered.
    By Joyce M/Blythe @ 05/13/09 09:07:34 AMreport abuse
  • Time to break it down...
    Republicans need to start thinking and getting on the offensive. If you are to appeal or at least make one of the members of the ”dumb masses” understand or comprehend a million, billion, and a trillion.
    Print out a small pamphlet showing a simple graph or two. The graph must be to scale. Show the budget, show how much it costs to operate government, show how much the government takes in taxes, and show how much cost has been added by the Obama budget. The first couple of pages would show most of the data, but all the pages following should be nothing but “RED” (future debt) and ask the simple question.
    How do you expect to pay for this?
    FOX did a nice type of scenario using flat screens, most of the information fit on one of the large screens but Obama’s budget took several screens wrapping around the set. What gave it the impact was that it was to scale. The big fat scary red line is what Obama is spending, the small little green line is what we have to work with.
    By Big G @ 05/13/09 08:55:12 AMreport abuse
send to a friend  view as printer-friendly  RSS feeds
advertisement
advertisement
advertisement