President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, where he will order members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.
The budget cuts, while they would account to a minuscule portion of federal spending, are intended to signal the president’s determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.
In our age of trillion-dollar budgets and deficits, $100 million is a rounding error at a Department of Agriculture regional office. The entire purpose of these cuts will be to fend off critics who are eager to say that the Obama administration didn’t downsize any government programs. They will allow for the creation of a talking-points memo that says, oh yes we have.