A clever YouTuber (would that be a Potato 2.0?) came up with a brilliant way to demonstrate the effect of Obama's proposed "cuts" of $100 million compared to the $3.5 trillion proposed budget. (Thanks to Randy Barnett at the Volokh Conspiracy for sharing.)

As one insightful commenter pointed out, I hope this clever penny fiend doesn't face any jail time for defacing U.S. legal tender.

Of course, a cut is only a cut if you are actually reducing the budget. But since Obama's budget of $3.5 trillion – ironically subtitled "A New Era of Responsibility" – is $400 billion larger than Bush's 2009 budget proposal, it's hard to call removing $100 million from the budget a "cut." Only politicians and car salesmen can get away with such egregious double speak. ("We'll throw in our super-duper Rust-o-Protecto for only $100 a month, plus we'll give you an extra $20 on your trade-in.")

Could you get away with this?

My dad was infamous for coming home and telling my mom, "I saved us a bunch of money today!" and then unveiling some expensive, superfluous electronic gadget or motor vehicle intended primarily for his own amusement. Perhaps it's unnecessary to say that such behavior irked my mom to no end.

Thinking about your own personal finances, could you get away with increasing your spending by nearly 13% and then telling your significant other that you are cutting back because you plan to buy one less carbonated beverage over the next twelve months? Hopefully, he or she would slap you upside the head or leave you, or both.

But somehow, politicians get away with this sort of behavior. I'm not knocking Obama specifically – Bush did the same exact thing. If I would hazard a guess as to the cause of such behavior, I'd say it's probably a manipulation of some mysterious wormy parasite that affects the brains of more than half the people in the world. Or maybe it's just a side effect of the ego one must cultivate to be come Leader of the Free World™.

Either way, I simply don't understand how people can believe that actions which are harmful on a personal scale can be good on a massive scale. Overspending and increased debt are not good for individuals; neither are they good for a country.