Obama’s Four Flimsy Budget Cutting Ideas
by Lurita DoanPresident Obama, in his speech on the economy, given at the Bookings Institute, once again, tried to be all things to all people. Most of the speech was aimed at the dwindling number of devotees who were anxious to hear that additional taxpayer revenues would continue to flow to favored, pet projects.
Nor were these fans disappointed, for, despite running $1.2 trillion in annual deficits, President Obama has once again promised to borrow from the future to fund yet another round of pork and dodgy projects disguised as infrastructure and green investments.
At the same time the President was busy adding more spending programs to our bloated budget, he insisted, once again, that he was committed to fiscal discipline. Obama said “We’ve combed the budget, cutting waste and excess wherever we could.” Really?
What programs have been cut and what sorts of excess were eliminated? For the curious….here goes. After several months, Obama’s OMB has released a list of the top four programs that have been identified after an exhaustive search and combing of the federal budget.
The Administration reviewed over 38,000 different ideas, to aggressively root out wasteful practices, many of them submitted by government employees. After much work, synthesis,and review, OMB announced the four cost-cutting idea finalists:
- Let veterans take home unused medications that would otherwise be thrown away upon discharge from Veterans Affairs Department hospitals.
- Allow Forest Service personnel to deposit revenue from park fees or campground passes locally rather than sending it through a unit collections officer.
- Schedule Social Security appointments online.
- Have a single inspection for subsidized housing units, even those with multiple funders.
Wow! These are Obama’s four big ideas that he cites as an example of “combing the government, cutting waste and excess wherever we could”. This is it. This is the best the Obama Administration could do.
Of course, these ideas won’t save much. At best, these projects will make a small dent in spending. At worst, these are four ideas derived from a much-ballyhooed Presidential Initiative that never intended to confront the problem of wasteful spending throughout the government, but was simply a political stunt to divert attention from bloated spending and ballooning deficits, now running in excess of $1,200,000,000,000 per year.
The career government employees who recommended these cost savings idea should not be ridiculed nor should the ideas be rejected (with a $1.2T deficit– we need to encourage innovation and cost-cutting).
But, if this list is the best we can do, the country is in real trouble.
Team Obama seems to have no ability and no desire to make a serious effort to rein in out of control government spending. Yet, on the spending side, Team Obama can conjure up new, multi-billion dollar government programs with ease. President Obama is accelerating our fiscal and budgetary collapse. If Americans were not afraid before, they should be.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
29 Comments
When are we going to unite against them? When will there be a united opposition to all of this? Where is our voice? Why do we need to be co-opted by Dick Armey and his Freedom Works? Where is OUR political organization?!
Do I need to start it myself?
my friend – WE are the opposition. you and i, and many others hear the drumbeat and are gathering for this battle that will, i believe, ultimately decide the fate of our country. statism, liberalism, and socialism are what is at stake. this is the utopia of the progressives, and they will not go quietly. this battle is JUST now beginning. gather tight and hold the line – it could be a long one.
I get that… but I am tired of all these George Soros-funded organizations out there. Where's our organizations? These people are indoctrinating the public because no one is speaking out against them.
We need to fight back, and buy all the media companies are fire the idiot "journalists" working for them…
This administration has to go NOW!!! We do not have the time to wait 3 1/2 more years!! We will be destroyed..he is moving too fast and I'm worried that we won't have the means to stop this before our country is considered a third world country!!!!
No doubt the money spent by OMB soliciting, collecting, summarizing and studying these ideas cost more than the potential savings of them all … combined.
How very surprising.
it's not journalism anymore – it's propaganda. let's not stare in amazement at the head start they have on us – instead let's continue to work hard to bridge that gap. we have the tea parties, beck, limbaugh, brietbart, newsmax, townhall, heritage foundation, newsbusters, countless economists, authors, blogs, THE INTERNET, economic industry, and many, many, many other things going for us. most importantly – the TRUTH AND PRINCIPLE are on our side. all is not lost. when Pearl Harbor was attacked, the US had the 7th largest fighting force on the planet. once we find our compass (and motivation) – we present a force that is not stoppable. momentum is shifting, i believe. we will find those that have an 'offensive' mind and soon be dictating the terms of this war.
If they were smart the would start using the money to build the prisons we are going to need to house them all.
These are Obama’s four big ideas …
Sounds to me like they will create a new government entity to manage those four plans, I can hear it now
"We saved 20,000,000 and it only cost us 2,000,000,000!"
Why don't they let us, working Americans who have to balance our checkbooks every month, have a whack at it? We have more experience with this kind of thing than any of them do! There's no doubt we could come up with a long list of true wasteful spending. Honestly, I don't think it's in their vernacular ("cut spending") so it's really a foreign concept to them and something at which they are impossible to be successful.
I'm ready to hit the reset button.
It becomes more clear every day that the Obama administration has NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING! They are in so far over their heads but they keep on breathing…damn!
I honestly believe that Congress and Obama live in thier own little world where they think they can do anything and do nothing wrong. His "Lord of the Flies" system of governing is doomed to failure. Let's all hope he doesn't take us down with him.
Root out wasteful spending by cutting ties with ACORN and SEIU for starters. Then bring on Reaganomics. Problem solved.
reckless President, he's an idiot. He is the terrorist and he needs to be defeated now!
Throw everyone out in 2010 and reboot…
Obama can't pass anything without the Congress…and the Congress can't sell us out without Obama's signature…
Budget cut to 2006, defund any porkulus and TARPing, override the veto PBHO throws, no earmarks…
Cut taxes in 2012 when the conservative comes in, and make it permanent…
I should have added that I agree. They don't know how to create jobs. It's all about their ideology. Their heads are so far up their collective a$$e$, they're of the opinion they could do it better.
Four money-saving ideas that'll cost more to implement than the money they save.
Hmm. This must be what Joe Biden was talking about when he said that you have to spend money to save money!
Yea! I was trying to get myself out of debt so I went and bought a new car…LOL
4 out of 38,000 potential items to cut? The government is doing much better than usual. Usually they would find 0 items to cut. Obama will save us from financial ruin.
If they pass a healthcare bill and BO signs it I suggest we have a "drive-in protest." Everyone in America who can pack the car with 10 days of supplies and gas and drive to Washington DC. Take the junker, fill every square inch of roadway, grass on the Mall, every parking spot, abandon the car, camp out in it, whatever, shut the entire city down! Nobody moves! Tow trucks can't get in or out, just overwhelm them! Surround the Capital and the White House. Swarm them like locust. Shut down D.C. with a logjam of cars like never seen before in history. If the hippies tied up the NY Thruway with Woodstock, we can be a car tsunami to flood DC.. That ought to get their attention when the only way out is by helicopter.
Any "Normal" American could cut millions and millions of dollars of Government spending.
I say cut it all and let the taxpayers support our interests with our money, Boy how things would change.
I still think if Obama didn't have his daytime job, he would be a hit on the comedy circuit.
Try freedom force, 912 project, resistnet, asamom, there are hundreds of groups, pick one, get involved and stop whining.
insulting!!! this administration in their attempt at governance is laughable. the American people are not this stupid. …. do you feel that??? it's called a groundswell – and it's headed your way, congress.
Oh they definitely know what they are doing. They have been planning it for years.
ACORN just got all the funding back
They probably thought we'd all go quietly and submissively. They didn't count on a fight. Now they have to figure out how to at least look like they're engaged in creating jobs.
Once again, teh Zero finds new ways to innovate cynicism about government. Wow, four items. Are we supposed to be prostrate at this point, grateful for any cough in the direction of financial sanity? Go on, try and spend your way out of a recession when you're already trillions of dollars in the hole. *shaking head* What an idiot.
That's IT???? How PATHETIC! I say add a fifth… Cut Presidential pay to $1/year until the deficit is elliminated! This would probably save more than all four combined.
This is OUTRAGEOUS! Now, they're adding another $1.8 Trillion to the credit card ceiling? Now, there's a clue .. The Democrats & Obama have no intentions of cutting back on spending …Obama is 'clueless' and is allowing Congress, all 258 Democrats, to run this Country … I'm going to start calling some 'Sensible Senators', like Jim DeMint, Mike Spence, Steve King and others to 'inquire' about starting IMPEACHMENT proceedings against this 'Un-Qualified' President .. It IS in the Constitution that Obama can be removed for 'incompetence' … OR, in the alternative, every Citizen… including Conservative Democrats, need to vote for REPUBLICANS in 2010 & 2012 .. This 'Progressive Democrat' is nothing but another word for the 'COMMUNIST PARTY' , who, btw, endorsed Obama during his campaign … LET'S DO IT!! It's time for a Citizen Revolt .. and it's 'brewing' all across America NOW… Congress needs to be 'afraid' of it's citizens now .. they've gone toooooo far!! This is all in their 'Plan' to take over every facet of our lives … and economy!