By the Numbers

The New York Times editorial page is in a frenzy this morning. Read this:

Are there any adults in charge of the House? Watching this week’s frenzied slash-and-burn budget contest, we had to conclude the answer to that is no.

First Speaker John Boehner’s Republican leadership proposed cutting the rest of the 2011 budget by $32 billion. But that wasn’t enough for his fanatical freshmen, who demanded that it be cut by $61 billion, destroying vital government programs with gleeful abandon.

Even that wasn’t enough for leaders of the hard-line Republican Study Committee, which represents two-thirds of House Republicans. They proposed cutting another $20 billion, for a ludicrous total of $81 billion, all out of the next seven months of government operations.

$81 billion is less than 4% of outlays for the next seven months, and just over 2% of total spending for the entire year. The Pelosi & Reid boosted federal spending by more than 25% in the four years they ran Congress — now that’s ludicrous.