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White House Delivers on Spending Cuts. Whoo.
Remember back in April when Obama
ordered his cabinet to find and eliminate $100 million of
unnecessary spending?
Yesterday, the Office of Management and Budget reported that cabinet members and agency heads finally delivered on their first round of spending cuts. And the list of 77 cost-saving measures is even more laughable than the idea that $100 million would actually put a dent in overall federal spending.
A few of my favorites:
- The Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is to save $1.8 million in FY 2009 by no longer repainting newly purchased vehicles.
- The Department of Commerce will put a moratorium on “unnecessary office renovations” to save $131,000.
- Department of Education will start hosting meetings in their conference room, saving $65,000 a year.
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services has cancelled a meeting in Australia costing $36,000.
- The Department of Justice will save an estimated $4 million in FY 2010 by requiring personnel to make their travel arrangements online, rather than relying on travel agents.
It only took bureaucrats 98 days to come up with a ground-breaking $243 million in savings, more than twice as much as requested. Talk about going above and beyond the call of duty!
Nick Gillespie on Obama and the deficit here.
|7.28.09 @ 5:18PM|#
Hey now. If you go buy a Bentley on your credit card but stay at home for dinner a couple of nights that week, you are being responsible!!
Rich|7.28.09 @ 5:20PM|#
And, in the spirit of transparency, coming up with these gems cost the taxpayer what exactly?
kilroy|7.28.09 @ 5:22PM|#
"77 cost-saving measures"
Which coincidentally is the same number axes in the administration
will newly finished edges.
hmm|7.28.09 @ 5:30PM|#
LoL
The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service is to save $1.8
million in FY 2009 by no longer repainting newly purchased
vehicles.
No more lime green trucks. That's funny.
|7.28.09 @ 5:30PM|#
From the OMB memo:
we hope that these steps will start to instill a culture of
cost-savings and care when it comes to using taxpayer
dollars.
Is the OMB is admitting - that until now - cost savings and care
were never a consideration when using taxpayer dollars?
hmm|7.28.09 @ 5:34PM|#
The Department of Justice will save an estimated $4 million
in FY 2010 by requiring personnel to make their travel arrangements
online, rather than relying on travel agents.
Here's a hint. Hire an agent or two to work for you instead of
cutting into the more expensive time of agents and executives. I
bet they are pretty good at cutting costs for travel and might even
pay for themselves more than once. Fuck these people couldn't run a
goddamn business if they had to.
The Department of Justice will save an inestimable billions of
dollars and lives in FY 2010 by stopping the war on
drugs.
Fixed
|7.28.09 @ 5:35PM|#
Tony's response is apparently the talking points coming out of KOS these days. I have noticed that same response more and more from Obama supporters as his actions become increasingly indefensible. Apparently, in Obama land, any criticism no matter how valid can be dismissed as just bitching and whining.
Rich|7.28.09 @ 5:35PM|#
> Is the OMB is admitting - that until now - cost savings and
care were never a consideration when using taxpayer dollars?
Instill. v.t. To infuse slowly into the mind. To put in drop by
drop.
So, no.
|7.28.09 @ 5:38PM|#
To put this in perspective, this will cover just over half of
the annual interest on the two year bonds the Treasury issued
today.* And that's just today's auction.
*$42BB in two-year bonds went off today at 1.080% interest, or an
interest cost of $453,600,000 per year.
|7.28.09 @ 5:43PM|#
Hey, guys, he delivered on one of his promises. A completely
measly, mostly empty gesture, but he did it. Let's give some credit
where credit is due. It's not like he's fulfilling any other
promises.
Department of Education will start hosting meetings in their
conference room, saving $65,000 a year.
Where the fuck were they hosting meetings before?
hmm|7.28.09 @ 5:45PM|#
You know, "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch" would make an awesome name
for a feminist blog.
Or an anti feminist blog! Would that make it a chauvinist blog?
hmm|7.28.09 @ 5:45PM|#
Where the fuck were they hosting meetings before?
Mc Donalds with a PlayWorld.
|7.28.09 @ 5:46PM|#
"Where the fuck were they hosting meetings before?"
Or better yet what the fuck where they using the conference for
before now?
|7.28.09 @ 5:47PM|#
Give me the budget, a few red pens, and a month to edit it, and
I'll cut the government down to a third of its size. Without
destroying the country in the process, I might add.
And that's without going all libertarian on the federal
government's ass, too.
|7.28.09 @ 5:47PM|#
Seriously. "Ah we have a conference room, but I don't want any of you clowns conferencing in it. You got that?"
|7.28.09 @ 5:49PM|#
Pro,
You could kill off Education, Labor, Reduce Commerce to NOAA, FEMA,
HUD, and Transportation just to start. No one notice any of them
were gone.
|7.28.09 @ 5:50PM|#
Seriously, we could balance our budget, or very nearly so, just
by going back to the level of spending we had in 2005.
Sure, we had millions of people starving and homeless then, with
police and fire departments shuttered across the land . . . .
hmm|7.28.09 @ 5:50PM|#
Or better yet what the fuck where they using the conference
for before now?
For storage. To store the kids left behind so none were left
behind.
|7.28.09 @ 5:51PM|#
Reason magazine.
Whining about actions they claim to support since 1968.
In cool leather jackets!
|7.28.09 @ 5:51PM|#
It was probably a work room with a $10,000 walnut table and $800 Aeron chairs. And a coffee-maker, fridge, credenza, and view of the Capitol.
|7.28.09 @ 5:53PM|#
What if we went back to the 1990 budget, adjusted for changes like the end of the Cold War and for the change in population? What's the worst that could happen?
|7.28.09 @ 5:53PM|#
They were conferencing in the local strip club before. Now they've saved money by only getting one or two strippers at a time to come to the conference room.
|7.28.09 @ 5:54PM|#
Maybe RC. I am not sure where the DEPT of ED is. Some federal buildings are palatial, see DOJ headquarters. Some are dumps. ED could be either.
|7.28.09 @ 5:54PM|#
Epi,
Strippers do take the government impact credit card. And as long as
the tip is under $3,000 you do not have to compete out the
services.
Kevin|7.28.09 @ 6:00PM|#
Mark my words, this will come up on the campaign trail in the near future. And many, many morons will believe the bullshit about how fiscally responsible he was back in 2009. This is nothing more than a future campaign talking point.
Rich|7.28.09 @ 6:04PM|#
"DHS components are improving operation efficiencies by
restructuring operations in order to remove duplication and
streamline processes and by eliminating excess expenses. To date,
DHS anticipates savings of $1,254,000 in FY2009."
I *almost* feel sorry for bureaucrats who have to write stuff like
that.
|7.28.09 @ 6:07PM|#
The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service
is to save $95 billion by being defunded. $1.8 million
in FY 2009 by no longer repainting newly purchased
vehicles.
There, see how easy it is.
Rich|7.28.09 @ 6:10PM|#
> Give me the budget, a few red pens, and a month to edit it,
and I'll cut the government down to a third of its size. Without
destroying the country in the process, I might add.
Great exercise. Pro & John, I like to challenge
non-libertarians with "Name *one* government program you would
eliminate." Typically, the silence is deafening.
|7.28.09 @ 6:18PM|#
I forgot Ag Warren. That is blind, deaf dog that needs to be killed. And Engery as well.
|7.28.09 @ 6:21PM|#
Or better yet what the fuck where they using the conference
for before now?
Educational orgies.
|7.28.09 @ 6:28PM|#
kilroy,
'Cause he ain't sitting in an Aeron.
I just got back from vacation in North Carolina, and on the drive
home (in South Carolina), I drove on an interchange on I-95 named
for Ben Bernanke. That pissed me off for some reason.
|7.28.09 @ 6:31PM|#
Everyone wants an Aeron, though, dude. They're the
best.
I've had three employers since they came out. I've made each one
buy me one.
I'm sitting in an Herman Miller Aeron right now. Do they really
cost $800?
If you want shit like arms and stuff, they do.
I almost got my current employer to spring for the Executive
Dickhead model. It has these sweet polished aluminum fittings, for
only about $500 more.
|7.28.09 @ 6:34PM|#
Well, well, I've got arms on mine. Does this make me a tophat-wearing capitalist? I sure hope so.
Michael|7.28.09 @ 6:47PM|#
The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service is to save
$1.8 million in FY 2009 by no longer repainting newly purchased
vehicles.
Did they decide to just order them in the color they want?
Space Fiend|7.28.09 @ 7:24PM|#
Rich, did you used to post at protestwarrior.com?
Not that 'rich' is exactly an uncommon name, especially on a
libertarian board, but I'll take a shot.
|7.28.09 @ 7:26PM|#
Well, well, I've got arms on mine. Does this make me a
tophat-wearing capitalist? I sure hope so.
Only if you sprang for the monocle polish refrigerator built into
the arm rest. With chrome nautical imagery inlaid into the
casters.
Paul|7.28.09 @ 7:30PM|#
Administrator: Oh yeah, and here's my favorite... on the
written, you just drew a little picture of the man with wings from
the Led Zeppelin albums.
Brock: Icarus... so...what're you sayin', little man, you sayin'
you don't like Zep?
Paul|7.28.09 @ 7:58PM|#
Tony's response is apparently the talking points coming out
of KOS these days
I swung by ol' Kos today, to find this gem: "Even Wal-Mart supports
a massive [healthcare] overhaul, as the article notes."
Those of us familiar with concepts such as rent-seeking and the
like smile at these revelations by the Kos Kidz. I take a certain
comfort in watching liberals getting rammed up the ass by their
self-styled enemies, only to hear them scream "Yeah! Yeah! YES!
HARDER! HARDER!"
They're being raped, but yet enjoying it. It's a very interesting
juxtaposition.
Rhywun|7.28.09 @ 8:27PM|#
I'm no hardcore libertarian but I think I can do without "Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services". WTF?
Atanarjuat|7.28.09 @ 8:38PM|#
Rhywun, it's probably for inspecting plants and animals that cross state lines for diseases that target disease-prone cash crops such as citrus. If so it's basically welfare for farmers.
TallDave|7.28.09 @ 8:50PM|#
Why not just send Joe Biden around Washington picking up pennies off the street?
TallDave|7.28.09 @ 8:52PM|#
Whining about actions they claim to support since 1968. In
cool leather jackets!
Hey, my cool leather is jacket is from 1998.
|7.28.09 @ 9:32PM|#
Whining about actions they claim to support since
1968.
Are you stupid?
(It's a rhetorical question.)
|7.28.09 @ 9:53PM|#
I'm sure this will earn me the enmity of the Obama worshippers,
but I have to ask: so, what exactly happens to this $100 million
that was "saved"?
Nothing, I suspect: the "savings" are imaginary and this is just a
circle jerk.
hmm|7.28.09 @ 10:00PM|#
I'm sure this will earn me the enmity of the Obama
worshippers, but I have to ask: so, what exactly happens to this
$100 million that was "saved"?
You spend it again. DUH!
|7.28.09 @ 11:47PM|#
You spend it again. DUH!
Yeah, you've got to be stupid if you don't think these "200 million
in savings" are not being shifted to some other parts of their
budgets. It's not worth anybody's time taking the money back to
make half of an interest payment, as noted above, on the treasury
bonds issued today.
Once that shit goes in their budgets, its theirs and you can pry it
from their cold dead hands. Funding is like oxygen for bureaucrats.
Or maybe more like a fetish object, like pantyhose or three foot,
double-sided dildos.
hmm|7.29.09 @ 12:20AM|#
All government budgets are like that. They do not decrease, they rarely stay the same, which only leaves one direction. Budgeting for a municipality, and all other government is the same, is simple. Take last years budget(be sure to spend it all that year) and scream and cry and piss and moan and threaten and spin doomsday scenarios until you get more money. That is exactly what every department w/in a city, cities, counties, states, and our federal government does. I watched it go on at the micro level for years. Spend it all and beg for more. Regardless of whether you need it or not, cause if you don't you ain't gettin it next year.
wingnutx|7.29.09 @ 12:51AM|#
Mark my words, this will come up on the campaign trail in
the near future.
"$243 million in savings" will make a great soundbite. It doesn't
matter how much it really amounts to.
Ray Gardner|7.29.09 @ 1:51AM|#
Listening to local talk radio (Phoenix) I went from hearing
about how the state is about to go bust, to a public service
announcement about not littering.
So my state is going broke while sponsoring ad campaigns complete
with websites, billboards, etc.
But the teachers, policemen, et al are going to have to take a few
days off or possibly even be out of a job.
Sirithil|7.29.09 @ 1:54AM|#
"A large number of DOJ copiers and printers can be configured to automatically print double-sided. Increasing the frequency of double-sided printing will reduce paper consumption and lower costs."
Sirithil|7.29.09 @ 1:54AM|#
What this means, of course, is that DOJ was apparently paying EXTRA originally for upgraded models with duplexer attachments they had no intention of actually using.
|7.29.09 @ 5:35AM|#
I read recently that the "burn rate" just for Iraq is $14M per
hour. At that rate, Obama's minions have paid for 17 hours, 21
minutes, 26 seconds of the Iraq occupation.
Whoo, indeed.
Rhywun|7.29.09 @ 7:41AM|#
I don't think "I saved $243 million" makes a great soundbite--people are used to hearing them toss around trillions now. Only stupid people will think that it's at all significant.... Oh.
|7.29.09 @ 1:14PM|#
What if we went back to the 1990 budget, adjusted for
changes like the end of the Cold War and for the change in
population? What's the worst that could happen?
The return of AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy. And not having a cell
phone.
|7.29.09 @ 3:29PM|#
Some enterprising blogger should do a FOIA request (or requests as needed) and tell us how much these government agencies spent in compiling these lists of cost cutting measures. Brainstorming sessions with brains of this caliber can't be cheap.
engineer|7.30.09 @ 6:44PM|#
"They're being raped, but yet enjoying it. It's a very
interesting juxtaposition."
And THEY criticize Ayn Rand's fiction.
Dirty Jacky|8.1.09 @ 10:55AM|#
Top Ten reasons to Kill Granny
1. Roads would be safer.
2. People would have more free time instead having to visit the old
folks in the home.
3. Home improvement scam artists would be put out of
business.
4. There would be more tax revenue from the inheritance (death)
tax.
5. No more scary "hoveround" commercials.
6. Shitting your pants would become popular again.
7. The creepy AARP would go out of business
8. We could legally get rid of Obamas mother in law.
9. Retirement homes could be turned into brothels or frat
houses.
10. If you've fallen and cant get up, we could just leave you
there.
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