Former U.S. Senator from Illinois and Senate Minority Leader, Everett Dirksen, was famously (or infamously) purported to have said, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking real money."

Has that quote ever been more relevant than today, a day in which President Obama signed, in private, the abominable (or is it Obamanable) $410 billion omnibus spending bill?  The bill funds discretionary government spending for the next six months.  As a brief aside, note that whenever a president, particularly the King of All Media (apologies to Howard Stern), signs a bill in private, consider it a five-alarm indication that it's an unmitigated disaster.

Back to the business at hand.  The $410 billion represents an after inflation 8% increase over the previous period.  Yep, in a time when almost all individuals and businesses are cutting back, or at least redoubling their efforts to spend judiciously, our government thinks it's wise to grow outlays by 8%—on top of the increase already baked in for inflation.  That is a roughly $30 billion difference.

$30 billion...sounds like a fairly big number, but is it in the context of recent events where billions are discussed in the hundreds and thousands? 

Well, sometimes, $30 billion is not $30 billion.  How so?  It's no secret that the $410 billion will become the new omnibus baseline.  Does anybody believe there's a chance the government will actually reduce spending in the future?  Doubt it.  So, looking out over Obama's 10-year budget projection timeframe, the higher baseline could reasonably equate to an additional $774 billion in total spending.  That can't be right, can it? 

Do the math; the numbers don't lie.  Start with $380 billion in one column.  Multiply it by 1.02 (the assigned inflation rate).  Take that total and multiply it by 1.02.  Do that 20 times to represent all 20 periods in the 10 year budget timeframe.  Then, put $410 billion in another column.  Do the exact same thing you did in the column with $380 billion at the top.  Now, simply subtract the values in the $380 billion column from the corresponding values in the $410 billion column.  The result of each of the 21 subtraction operations (includes the baseline year) represents the additional spending for each period (i.e. $30 billion in the baseline year).  Total those 21 amounts and you end up with something in the neighborhood of $774 billion.

Hmmm, that number looks somewhat familiar.  Oh yeah, the "down payment" on healthcare reform in Obama's budget is $634 billion.  Therefore, had the President exhibited a little discipline, not to mention respect for a campaign promise to cut out wasteful/unnecessary spending, he could have ostensibly funded the entire healthcare down payment...and had a $140 billion left over.

A billion here, a billion there....