Financial Genius

Let's face it, budgets are pretty boring unless you're an accountant....or obsessed with debt-free living like me.  There's one part of Obama's proposed budget though that I find amusing...in that scary 'the government is about to screw us again' way.

Obama wants to put $230 billion towards highways.  I think we can all get behind some highway improvements, yes?  Of course, the next question is how are we going to come up with $230 billion dollars.  We're already in the red (for those in Congress who might be reading this, that means we spend more than we make.....pretty sure you didn't know that).  No worries though, Obama has it figured out!  The way he figures it, ending the wars will save $850 billion...pulling $230 billion out of that should be simple, right?

*blink*

Ummmmm.....I see one tiny little flaw in this logic.  The money we used to pay for the wars was BORROWED!!!!  We never had $850 billion to begin with.  Just because you stop writing bad checks doesn't mean you magically have all that money you wrote bad checks for in the past.

To put it another way, let's say you took out $100K in loans to go to college.  Once you graduate and leave college you say whew, since I'm saving $100K now because I've ended college.  I can afford to use part of that to go buy a $50K car.  HELLO!  You don't have $100K in your pocket.  You don't even have $50K.  You aren't 'saving' $100k now that you're done going to college.  YOU'RE IN DEBT!! 

For you math types out there I'll illustrate it this way....$0 + (-$850) = -$850.  See, it doesn't even require finding 'x'.

So how come our government has such a difficult time with basic math?  BTW....this isn't just a problem with one party.  Apparently neither party has basic math skills.  Maybe we should pass a new law....No Congressman Left Behind......