Drops in a very big bucket

Remember when President Obama ordered federal agencies to shave $100 million from their budgets? Well, The Wall Street Journal [reports they did it with $2 million extra on top](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124882436513388423.html).

> With the budget deficit soaring toward $2 trillion, the Department of Justice has figured out how to play its part: double-sided photocopying.

>

> There are other acts of national sacrifice. The Forest Service will no longer repaint its new, white vehicles green immediately upon purchase. The Army will start packing more soldiers onto R&R flights. The Navy will delete unused email accounts.

The Journal, it seems, could barely hide its contempt for the initiative, calling it a “savings shocker” in the headline and calling out “Front-and-Back Copies, Other Wonders” in the subhead.

That is 0.006% of the estimated federal deficit.

Still, a penny saved is a penny earned, right?

**Update:** It seems the Minnesota Senate is getting into the cost-cutting act as well. The AP says the Senate is cutting $2.2 million from its budget by spending “[less on everything from employees to Kleenex](http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/07/29/minnesota-senate-budget-cuts/).”