The entire political process is disgusting. But let's get explicit:

Today the media are whooping and hollering about "Woohoo! $38 Billion Cut in Spending."

E.g.,
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-congress-spending-20110415,0,6839980.story

Come on people, give me an effing break. These are mere spits in the  bucket, whether a risible $38B or the even more risible and infinitesimally small $352M.

The true answer is that the cuts apparently are less than one thousandth of one percent of the total budget!!!

Good Grief! And we were going to close down government over that? Democrats, get real.

Total smoke and mirrors, by their own announcements, if anyone knows how to use a calculator.

Don't people have a clue as to the magnitude of our debt??? Get a life, shut down the TV, and break out a calculator or spreadsheet:

• + The total 2011 Federal budget is 3.83 TRILLION. 

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_States_federal_budget

That is:
          3,830,000,000,000          (3.83x10^12)

• The alleged cut is 38 billion:

          38,000,000,000               (3.8x10^10)

• The ratio (cuts divided by Federal):

          0.010                                (That is less than ONE PERCENT: 10^(-2))

Even if it is true.

Which apparently it isn't:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/04/14/135404502/how-washington-turned-38-billion-into-352-million

So now the math is

• Analyzed cut is 352 million:

          352,000,000                    (3.52x10^8)

• The true ratio (true cuts divided by Federal budget):

          0.000092                         (9.2x10^(-5) Less than one thousandth of one percent)

Good grief!!! Can I stop laughing now? This is extremely risible.

And therein lies the problem.

There it is again, that 98th percentile number:

• 98% of the population haven't a clue what risible means. 
• 98% of that population don't care.
• 98% of those don't have a clue where to go to find out. Even if they cared.

 How can we quantify risible to the third power?

Shame, shame, shame.

But you can't shame people who have no pride and no self-respect. Which is the category into which I place the majority of our current political leadership.