The whole point is that we aren't "stripping" anything. The Federal government is spending so much more since just ten years or so ago that it is impossible to believe that none of that is fat.

The 2011 budget is $3.7 trillion dollars, with a $1.6 trillion deficit. This is insane.

Ten years ago the budget was a trillion dollars less, even adjusting for inflation.

I was around ten years ago. Things were all getting done that needed doing. Everything. The population since then has gone up by a grand total of ten percent. Both Democrats and Republicans have bloated the system to the point of lunacy, and Obama insists we need to almost double the budget again over the next ten years.

If a politician tells you that cutting the system back from these levels is "draconian," you are talking to an idiot. Throw him out the window and talk to the next guy.