The Federal Budget Con

If you've been following the non-negotiations going on in Washington regarding the budget (really, who hasn't??), an opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal skewers both Republicans and Democrats and espeially the President.  The approach used by Washington is called base line budgeting - a con if there ever was  one.  To quote from the article:

The most absurd current example is Mr. Obama's claim that his "$4 trillion" plan reduces the deficit by about $800 billion over 10 years by ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But those "savings," as he calls them, are measured against a White House budget office spending baseline that is fictional. Those wars are already being unwound and everyone knows the money will never be spent. But they are called "savings" to gull the public and make the deficit reduction add up to a large-sounding $4 trillion.

You can read - and fume - at the full article here.