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Sounds like the beginning of a joke, right?  Well, this story isn’t too funny. Two days ago, President Obama signed a Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that includes pork for the embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). President Obama had cut $35 million for new emergency operations centers in Reid’s home state of Nevada from the budget because “the program's award allocations are not based on risk assessment,” which is wonk-speak for 100% prime grade pork.

But here’s the punchline: Congress did not just reject Obama’s cuts; they nearly doubled the funding for Reid’s pork project. The centers will now receive $60 million in funding, a gift from Congressional Democrats for Reid to campaign on since he’s struggling with his unpopularity back home. In the words of Richard Simon at The Los Angeles Times: “As it turns out, President Obama's proposed spending cuts aren't entirely the kind of change Congress can believe in.” 

But Mr. Simon gives way too much credit to Obama, who isn’t exactly the budget hawk he pretends to be. Back in April, he told his cabinet secretaries to come up with $100 million in cuts from their budgets.  In July, the White House reported that a total of $102 million in cuts were found, but as The Wall Street Journal pointed out, that equaled 0.006% of the estimated federal deficit at the time.

So here’s the REAL joke: How does this all relate to a water bottle and Mount Everest? Well, here’s what happens if you compare Obama’s proposed “budget cuts” to his $9.1 trillion in deficit spending over the next decade:

Obama and Congressional Democrats clearly have a spending problem that will only get worse if Obama’s $1 trillion-plus government-run health care experiment becomes law.  As we know Obama doesn’t have the best track record with his experiments. His last spending experiment, the $787 billion stimulus, hasn’t quite worked out as planned.