OK.  Krugman, Koppelman, and (no surprise) Clusterstock are all up in arms about this, but… if it’s such a small amount of money, then it can’t take these departments that long to come up with a way to trim it, right?  How long does it taken to search the couch cushions, usually?  It takes me about 3 minutes and I have three couches.  And at the end of it, I have parking money.  So the government takes its equivalent of 3 minutes and at the end of it is has something to point to when Republicans go “Democrats’ Programs Are Full of Waste!!”  Seems like a worthwhile investment to me.