The President is making a show of fiscal frugality today. Holding his cabinets’ collective feet to the fire as it were by ordering them to find a way to save $100 million.

Greg Mankiw’s blog adds some perspective in light of the $3.5 trillion Obama budget and $1.2 trillion deficit:

Just to be clear: $100 million represents .003 percent of $3.5 trillion.

To put those numbers in perspective, imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had be cut? By $3 over the course of the year–approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks. The other $33,997? We can put that on the family credit card and worry about it next year.

There really isn’t any need to say anything more.