Obama Cuts Literally A Drop in the Bucket April 22, 2009 Tonya Barr Tonya Barr The Heritage Foundation’s Foundry blog has posted a helpful illustration of Obama’s proposed $3.69 trillion budget and how his requested $100 million budget cut looks in relation to the rest of his spending initiatives. Heritage quotes Harvard University economics professor Greg Mankiw: “To put those numbers in perspective, imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had to be cut? By $3 over the course of the year-approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks. The other $33,997? We can put that on the family credit card and worry about it next year.” This graphic pretty much puts it into perspective. (Hat tip to Norman Leahy of Tertium Quids.) Stay informed on the tax policies impacting you. Subscribe to get insights from our trusted experts delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe Share Tweet Share Email Topics Center for Federal Tax Policy