Thanks For the Laugh, Mister Prez

It seems that the Kwisaatz-Haderach, our new God-Emperor, must be trembling with fear at the righteous wrath of the tea partiers, and is going to head off revolution with reform:

President Obama on Monday plans to gather his Cabinet for the first time as president and challenge it to cut $100 million in the next 90 days, two senior administration officials said.

The officials spoke anonymously because the announcement had yet to come from the president, who returned Sunday from the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

The agencies would have to report how they saved on expenses after 90 days, the officials said.

A senior administration official described the edict as part of Obama's "commitment to go line by line through the budget to cut spending" and "reform the government."

One position in Obama's Cabinet has not been filled yet -- the Senate has not voted on whether to confirm Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of health and human services.

As the House of Representatives and Senate return from recess this week, the lawmakers are expected to start reconciling their versions of the fiscal 2010 budget resolution. The president's budget request is $3.67 trillion.

As far as I can tell, Muad'dib must figure that his fellow-citizens -- essentially all of whom were "educated" in the government schools -- see all big numbers as being more or less the same size. (I'm sure he's right to think so, too.) Because you, O Reader, are not among the innumerate, I know I'm not wasting my time in pointing out that one hundred million (1.0E+08) is a vanishingly-small fraction of that proposed budget figure of 3.7E+12. It is, in fact, 2.7E-05, or 0.0027%. Suppose that you, O Middle-Class Household Member, are contemplating how you'll spend $75K this year, and you took the Obama Challenge™ to make an equally-draconian cut in your spending. You would need to forgo the expenditure of a glorious $2.03 ... for the year, that is. That's almost four cents per week!

I don't know about you ... but I certainly don't see how we could ever ask our glorious leaders to tighten the belt any more than that. Man ... that's bare-bones, for sure.