President Obama launched the third annual SAVE program to cut government cost to great fanfare. According to Obama, "These are important steps that can save taxpayers billions of dollars over the next several years. We're cutting what we don't need so that we can invest in what we do need."

A more realistic assessment is that the winning proposals, if enacted, would save at most 1 million a year.

Administration officials said the intent of the program is to eliminate government waste in five areas: travel, vehicles, technology, printing and "swag," such as caps and coffee mugs with a federal insignia.

Get that? Savings in travel.

Discretionary Use Of Private Aircraft:

(One of 2 Boeing 747-200Bs "Air Force One"):

Annual Costs: 700 hours @ $65,000/hr: $45,500,000

But then the savings in "caps and coffee mugs with a federal insignia" just might offset the cost of Michelle's Arugula and Kobe steaks.

The total cost of the presidency?

Annual Expenses Total: $59,077,000

Four Years of Same: $236,308,000

Pension And Related Benefits:

Present value of Pension Benefits ($200,000 per year): $2,251,556

Total Expenses: $238,559,556

Average Annual Expenses: $59,639,889

So the President touts a program that he says is going to save billions over "the next several years" when a realistic estimate is more like a couple of million and he spends that in a week?

This fits in with Victor Davis Hanson's account of Obama's "imaginarium" in which,