A little off the top, please

The White House is ordering a haircut. Not for President Barack Obama. For the Executive Branch departments.

Obama convened his Cabinet Monday and ordered department heads to trim their budgets by a combined $100 million over the next 90 days. He says the reductions will help overcome a “confidence gap” among Americans about the use of their tax dollars.

Obviously, Obama is looking at a different gap, a far smaller gap, than the one that sent thousands of Americans to Tax Day tea parties last week, protesting Washington’s spending ways. How small? The cut Obama ordered amounts to .000028 percent of his $3.5 trillion budget.

“We have a deficit, a confidence gap, when it comes to the American people,” Obama said. “And we’ve got to earn their trust.”

Even if it’s only .000028 percent at a time.