2011 budget as corny as Kansas in August

The New York Times provided some much-needed budgetary visuals with Obama's 2011 Budget Proposal: How It's Spent

The checkerboard graphic shows blocks of spending in earthy colors. It looks like what you see flying 30,000 feet over Kansas on a clear summer day. On the upper left, is the huge field of corn that's defense. On the bottom left is the equally big swath of wheat that represents Social Security.

On the bottom right are the teeny tiny boxes for science and energy conservation programs.

The $161.3 million proposed for the National Endowment for the Arts comes in a square so tiny that it can't be seen. It's as if my summer garden were tucked into the far southeastern corner of Kansas, somewhere east of Baxter Springs. I couldn't see it from six miles high.

Check out the graphic. Very sobering.