What to Cut

Even though President-Elect Barack Obama is not President yet, we’ve heard a lot of his opinions: everything from the government needing to use technology more effectively to college football needing to change to a playoff system.

Arguably one of his most important decisions is the budget cuts he’s promised to make to improve the federal government by rooting out wasteful programs. However, while everyone likes to save money, what’s not always appreciated is when that money is saved by cutting something you want. Complicating the matter is there are a lot of things in the federal budget that simply can’t be cut – either because it is a necessity (Homeland Security) or because cutting it would mean political suicide (health care).

Simply put, cutting spending from the federal budget is not as easy as clipping coupons for Saturday’s trip to Super Wal-Mart.

The Associated Press reported that a member of the transition team, speaking on a condition of anonymity, said that nothing will be considered off the table, at least for discussion, when considering budget cuts.

The annual federal budget is $3 trillion, and it will take a lot of work to discover which programs funded by this budget can go. But it’s a necessary step in curbing federal spending and making government more efficient.

As Obama said, “We will go though our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible, cost-effective way.”

Posted in Performance Wire