Cal Thomas’ expense cuts won’t fix deficit

On Tuesday, Nov. 27, Cal Thomas’ solution to the federal debt was to cut spending. He listed seven examples of what he considered to be government waste totaling $257 million.  That is 4/1000 of 1 percent of total U.S. spending which exceeds $6 trillion in a $24-trillion economy. If your family’s annual income was $100,000, that would be like your family cutting its spending 8 cents per week.

Mr. Thomas exploits what appear to be large numbers hoping that you, the reader, will fail to recognize how insignificantly small they are, and he fails to tell you that cutting those items from the budget would have absolutely no impact on U.S. debt.

Again, suppose your family was $500,000 in debt and your financial advisor advised you to reduce your spending by 8 cents per week. Would that get you out of debt? What would you think of your advisor?

— David Post
Salisbury