'When Billions Aren't Real Money'

A scathing editorial in Investor's Business Daily about the fuzzy math coming out of the White House these days.

Barrack Obama is using the president's executive powers to scale back pay raises for federal employees from 2.4% to 2% next year. This would save taxpayers about $2.7 billion, but this is an administration that is presiding over the largest budget deficits in U.S. history.

From the editorial:

In an era when the budget deficit — nearing $1.58 trillion — and debt — $11.8 trillion — are at all-time highs, when it looks as if the expanding federal apparatus will soon swallow the entire nation, the administration found $2.7 billion in spending cuts.

Technically, it's not a cut. Instead of funding $22.6 billion for 2.4% cost-of-living allowances for 2010, the taxpayers will be responsible for providing $19.9 billion to pay for a 2% COLA. It's just a small restraint on raises.

Sure, $2.7 billion is a much bigger savings than the $100 million in cuts the administration recently wrung out of the 2009 budget. But that's like saying a pebble is bigger than a grain of sand when the real problem ahead is a series of large mountains.

The hardworking taxpayers who pay federal salaries should be outraged by the administration's inconsequential curb on pay raises. With the economy still struggling and the jobless rate at almost 10%, hiring freezes, pay freezes and firings are common across the private sector.

Read the full editorial, "When Billions Aren't Real Money," at the newspaper's Web site.