Tuesday, February 03, 2009

I Should Have Known Better

Yesterday's post on 10% cuts in defense spending looks to have been completely wrong. I seem to have been taken in by the oldest government spending trick in the book - calling a reduction in an increase a cut. That is, if last year, you received $100B and you ask for $110B this year, but only get $105B, you run around screaming that your budget has been cut $5B. The education industry does this all the time, which is how they've managed to become the bloated toad that they are.

What a dufus I was. A good rule of thumb is this: when a government agency complains of a cut, assume they deserved it first and then investigate.

Kudos to the far-right blog Hot Air for catching this.

H/T: Dean.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the correction. When I rail while impotently shaking my fist in the air, I like to at least be clear on what things to rail against.