For fun, Utahn Matthias Shapiro made and posted on YouTube a video to demonstrate that $100 million in budget cuts ballyhooed by President Barack Obama are not all that big.

Little did he suspect that the Republican National Committee would soon see his video and love it — really love it.

In fact, it flew him to Washington on Tuesday to show his videos at a press conference and at a meeting of Republican senators, and put him on national TV.

"Data visualization is kind of a hobby of mine," Shapiro told the Deseret News. "I'm a little bit surprised they wanted to bring me out here. I mean, it's just a YouTube video. In technical terms, it's not that big of a deal."

Shapiro, 28, a software developer who lives in Holladay, sought to show that Obama's announced plan to spend 90 days to find ways to cut $100 million out of the federal budget isn't as big of a deal as it sounds at first.

So he put 10,000 pennies ($100 worth) on a table. Then he cut one penny into quarters, took away one quarter, and said that's how big the Obama cut would be compared with the overall federal budget.

"Some people are saying the president is just taking a number that sounds big so that it'll look like he's doing something about federal spending," Shapiro says in the video. After taking a quarter cent from the 10,000 pennies, he says, "Suddenly $100 million doesn't seem as big to me as when he said it in the press conference."

Soon Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele posted his own video on YouTube, saying, "Hey, Matthias. How you doing, man?" He added, "I just watched your 10,000 pennies video. Loved it. … It was smart, it was direct and it was right. Our research department checked out your math, and you got it right, man. You're spot on."

So Steele said the committee chose Shapiro to receive its first "Grassroots Logic Award," and offered to pay to fly him to Washington. Shapiro says he thinks that's too much ado for a little YouTube video, but he accepted.

The committee helped put him on the national "Fox and Friends" to talk about the video, held a press conference to show some of his videos and then took him to a lunch meeting with Republican senators to show them.

"Last week, I had zero connections in Washington, other than a friend who worked out here," he said. "Suddenly I'm in a meeting where (former presidential nominee) John McCain is shuffling by while I talk about my videos. I'm amazed at how fast things can change."

Shapiro said the Republican National Committee is "interested in new media, so they saw this as an opportunity to use it and YouTube more."

His videos can be seen on YouTube by searching for the title, "Obama Budget Cuts Visualization."

The address for the video is www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt8hTayupE&feature=related.

The address for the RNC response video is www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5afhNBcdmg.

E-MAIL: lee@desnews.com