Obama demands 0.0029% budget cut after running up spending

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - How can Barack Obama demonstrate his fiscal-responsibility creds after pushing through Porkulus, a pork-filled omnibus spending plan, and a $3.5 trillion budget that far outstrips even the last spending plan from the Democratic-controlled Congress? Demand a big reduction in spending through budget cuts at federal agencies. Obama has done just that — with cuts that amount to a whopping 0.0029% of the budget Obama just pushed Congress to provide him:

President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, where he will order members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.

The budget cuts, while they would account to a minuscule portion of federal spending, are intended to signal the president’s determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.

Obama’s order comes as he is under increasing pressure to show momentum toward his goal of eventually reducing the federal deficit, even as he goes about increasing spending in the short run to prop up the economy and support his priorities.

Earlier this month, both chambers of Congress passed Obama’s $3.5 trillion budget outline for 2010, which includes unprecedented new investments in health care, education and energy. But the huge budget, which contemplates a $1.2 trillion deficit, has drawn the ire of small-government conservatives who say that the deficits jeopardize the nation’s economic future.