An actual budget cut or a scaling back on a scheduled budget increase?  That was really the heart of what I wanted to get out of our Fiscal Policy Center Director Penn Pfiffner during our latest iVoices.org podcast. My initial thoughts about the supposed $600 million budget “cuts” were pretty much validated.  Not to spoil Penn’s thunder or anything but if you don’t have the 8 minutes to listen to our conversation, here is the bottom line: the general assembly is not actually cutting $600 million plus from the budget, they really are only cutting $234 million…. which amounts to around 3.1% of the entire budget.  Armageddon?  Nope.  But honestly, what would you do without us?  Heeding the threats from the media, you may have been out buying rations for the coming apocalypse.