Spending czars: Let the spenders figure out how to ... cut spending

If the new Obama administration federal budget unveiled this week has accomplished anything, it is this: Schoolchildren will soon know how many zeros are in a trillion.

Just like your household budget, the federal government each year charts income and expenses. To put it mildly, it ain't pretty this year. And it won't improve to any great extent until at least 2020.

But rising to the defense of the administration, there's simply not enough lipstick in the world to make this pig look pretty. With unemployment at extremely high levels and facing a deficit that it clearly unprecedented, there aren't a whole lot of options.

Conservatives want less spending. And, to his great credit, President Obama throws them a bone with some cuts in a number of programs. Even the Obama-popular Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeing cuts. That is a substantial step in the right direction.

But when you completely without reservation remove from cuts the military, veterans, homeland security, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, you have to look around a bit to find cuts that will have any impact.

So the administration is proposing the elimination of the tax cuts implemented under the Bush administration, which will further soak the well-to-do with billions more in taxes. That will generate some cold cash for sure, but it's doubtful it will encourage that small business owner to hire more workers.

Much of our runaway spending is the result of the stimulus package that has thrown billions of dollars into the economy. The administration would have us believe that, without this infusion of cash into the economy, we would be in much worse shape. Since there is no true way of knowing the validity of that argument, you either agree or disagree.

Here's one small example of the stimulus formula. Missouri higher education benefited from stimulus funding, as did so many others. Now facing the end of that magical cash, Missouri's higher education commissioner is warning colleges to brace for a 15 to 20 percent reduction in their funding. Wait until that hits the fan.

I'll admit I can't make heads or tails of the entire budget as it sits before me right now. I can understand where we're spending -- like the funding that remains for a universal health care overhaul -- and I can understand where we're getting those dollars. But I'm no more certain than anyone else whether this budget will provide some relief or just more delayed pain.

One thing I do know for certain is that, like all governments, our feds turn to the tired old formulas for an answer. You guessed it: We're going to form a deficit commission to study the issue. That's right. The same people who presided over this mess will now sit down as a commission and arrive at some answers.

I hope this commission works better than the commission formed to fight the War on Poverty or the War on Drugs.