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if we simply froze government spending at 2011 levels for ten years, this would be scored as a $9.5 trillion dollar cut. why? baseline budgeting. even though there would be no real world cuts, this is scored as cuts, because when accounting for government spending, annual increases to every department, agency, and program are automatically factored in. under obama's budget plan, the CBO says the national debt would grow by $9.5 trillion between 2012 and 2021. so if we simply froze the annual expanse of government, this would be counted as $9.5 trillion in cuts. the point i'm trying to make is that $1 trillion in cuts, $4 trillion in cuts, or even $6 trillion in cuts, isn't enough to offset the automatic upward trend of government, as it exists today.

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True.  But how would it have affected us if we'd not tripled our debt in Obama's first year in office?  Would the cuts have made a dent then?