(CNN) Stop me if you've heard this one before: Betsy DeVos has committed a massive public relations foible and is making it worse by refusing to own up to her mistake.

At issue -- this time -- for the bad-headline-magnet secretary of education are proposed cuts in her department's budget that would impact the Special Olympics -- in particular programs run at schools. These cuts are not new. In fact, DeVos has proposed cuts to the Special Olympics in her budgets for each year she's been in office. And these cuts are part of a broader 12% decrease in the proposed education budget -- a piece of the Trump administration's efforts to cut the federal budget on non-defense spending. In each of the previous years, DeVos' proposed cuts were rejected. And that was when Republicans controlled the House and Senate!

At a hearing on Tuesday, DeVos defended the proposed cuts this way: "I think the Special Olympics is an awesome organization, one that is supported by the philanthropic sector as well." Which, if you read between the lines, translates to this: The Special Olympics doesn't have a funding problem and, therefore, the federal government doesn't need to spend money on it. Any money we pull out will immediately be covered by private giving.

This point is not wrong. People would almost certainly make up the difference if the federal government pulled out. But an administration's proposed budgets for the various government departments are less about cold, hard numbers and more about what they believe their priorities to be and how they attempt to make good on them.

That's why proposing cuts to the Special OIympics is politically disastrous for anyone -- much less the secretary of education -- to embrace.

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