Compare Rand Paul's $500B budget cut proposal to Obama's $100M from 2009.

[JoshLowry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt8hTayupE

Not my video, but it sure puts it into perspective.

[Kotin]

Nice..

[Romulus]

Brilliant! That one needs to get around.

One stack of pennies = 2 billion. So 500 billion is quite a respectable cut in the budget.

[robert9712000]

good video,heres the original video from what i can tell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt8hTayupE

[Bergie Bergeron]

Rand said he will propose a one year balanced budget soon.

[sailingaway]

I think we should update the video with Rand's plan. I wonder if they will if we comment? Or if they'd mind if we added an addendum....

--
edit, Josh, when I went on youtube one of the comments said the original is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt8hTayupE They care. I think they are working on their view counts.

[Stary Hickory]

I would just like to point out that he destroyed a penny and that is a federal offense. He can be shot and killed for that.

[sailingaway]

I would just like to point out that he destroyed a penny and that is a federal offense. He can be shot and killed for that.

Maybe it was one of those new, tinny pennies. Surely those aren't considered real pennies.....

[Koz]

Why can you not destroy a penny, the Fed is destroying our currency every day. I guess destroying a penny makes our money more valuable. OK, now I see why the government doesn't want anyone destroying money, they want the inflation.

[RM918]

I would just like to point out that he destroyed a penny and that is a federal offense. He can be shot and killed for that.

As pointed out in the comments, it's only illegal to deface currency with the intent of fraud. If it were illegal to destroy pennies, those penny-flattener machines you find all over the place wouldn't be all over the place.

[Zippyjuan]

Trying to cut spending by $500 billion is certainly a step in the right direction. The 2010 budget http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget indicates $1.38 trillion in the "cutable" or "discressionary" part of the budget. Taking out $500 billion would get that down to $838 billion or a reduction of about 36 percent- over one third. I was looking at his proposal to see how the numbers so far come up.

http://www.randpaul2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Overview-500-billion-cuts-2.pdf

Legislative Branch: Cut by $1.28 billion or 23% according to his bill.
Judicial Branch: $2.4 billion or 32%
Department of Agriculture: $42.5 billion or 30%
Commerce Department: $5.3 billion or 54%
Department of Defence- a major big ticket item with the biggest potential for budget savings: only $47.6 billion or 6.5%
Education: $78 billion or 83%
Department of Energy- close it down and save $44 billion or 100%
Health and Human Services- $26.5 billion or 26%
Department of Homeland Security: cut by $23.8 billion or 43%
Eleminate the Housing and Urban Development's $53 billion
Department of the Interior: $10.9 billion or 78%
Department of Justice: take out $9 billion or 28%
Labor Department: $2.8 billion or 2%
State Department: $20 billion or 71%
Department of Transportation: $4.8 billion (I question his number for % reduction on this one- he is taking out $4.8 billion, leaving $48.3 billion and calling it a 49% reduction? Doesn't add up).
Corps of Engineers: $1.8 billion or 27%
Environmental Protection Agency: $3.2 billion or 29%
General Services Administration: $1.9 billion or 85%
Eliminate International Assistance- $24.3 billion
NASA $4.5 billion or 25%
National Science Foundation: $4.7 billion, 62%
Office of Personel Management- again his numbers for % savings don't add up but this time the other way- save $9 billion, leave $2.9 billion and reduce it by 12.3%?
"Other independent agencies"- $2 billion
FCC- reduce by $2.1 billion, 22% decrease
"Miscellaneous": $43.1 billion


Then some "odds and ends"
Collection of Deliquent Taxes $3 billion (that would be almost 100% of all deliquent taxes owed- according to his bill the total amounts outstanding come to $3.3 billion)
Federal Pay Freeze: Calling "not increasing" a "cut"? Government speak. I guess he isn't beyond that either. "Saves $2 billion" Makes me curious what other "cuts" are merely reductions in expected increases.

Reduce Federal Travel- save $7.5 billion (in 2009 he notes that this cost $8.93 so basically getting rid of all that- no longer going home to your district on the public dime like his father regularly likes to do).

End TARP- save $4.5 billion (I guess he hasn't heard that TARP officially has ended as of November 2010- save money by ending a program already ended?) http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/tarp-ends-monday-but-some-hang-on/

Sell Unused Federal Assets- raise $19 billion