The Exception Or The Rule?

With the IRS admitting to inappropriately targeting conservative groups – beginning back in 2011 – it’s worth taking another look at how the culture in Washington has been driven by politics even before this latest scandal.  Just a few weeks ago, serious questions were being raised about how federal agencies were implementing the sequester.  The White House repeatedly warned of the dire consequences of a 3 percent spending cut, and some have suggested that the...

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Getting Defensive

Yesterday, the Defense Department announced it would have to furlough over 600,000 workers come July, claiming it “has no choice” because of the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester. Yet, other agencies have been able to find ways to make the required spending cuts without furloughing any employees. Did the Pentagon really try “everything they could” to avoid furloughing workers? A recent GAO report showing that millions were wasted on new camouflage patterns i...

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No Smart Way?
“Number Crunchers” Edition

White House “number crunchers” have now identified nearly $5 billion they can avoid cutting through recalculations and “arcane budget rules.” So cutting three cents on the dollar was impossible, but when it comes to finding new spending, the White House rolls out the number crunchers.  Meanwhile, the headlines on wasteful spending continue to pile up, much like our $16 trillion-plus national debt.

WHITE HOUSE FINDS WAY TO AVOID CUTTIN...

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Spending Daily | May 3, 2013

US Economy Adds 165,000 jobs in April

Market Watch reports, “The U.S. created a net 165,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department said Friday. The increase surpassed the 135,000 forecast of economists polled by MarketWatch. What’s more, the economy created an additional 124,000 jobs in March and February than previously reported. The number of new jobs created in March was revised up to 138,000 from 88,000, the Labor Department said, while February’s figure was...

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No Smart Way?
Vacancy Edition

RHETORIC: President Obama: “No Smart Way” To Cut $85 Billion: “The problem is, when you’re cutting $85 billion in seven months … there’s no smart way to do that. There’s no smart way to do that.” (“Obama on Sequester Cuts: ‘There’s No Smart Way To Do That,’” Real Clear Politics, 2/26/13)

REALITY: Vacant Office Government Buildings Cost Taxpayers $1.7 Billion Annually: According to a report by the Government Accountability Office,...

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Spending Daily | May 2, 2013 

SHOCK: White House Can’t Avoid Furloughs

Bloomberg reports, “President Barack Obama began experiencing first-hand the effects of across-the-board federal spending cuts as the first wave of White House furloughs kicked in yesterday. The $85 billion in cuts known as sequestration hit White House staffers with day-long furloughs scattered throughout the next two weeks. All staff classified as non-commissioned will miss one work day without salary during May�...

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No Smart Way?
Oh, Behave…

The blame game in Washington reached a new low yesterday when President Obama said that he shouldn’t have to tell Congress how to “behave” when it comes to the sequester.  In light of the comments, Bankrupting America decided to take a look back at how the White House has been behaving when faced with cutting three cents on the dollar in government spending.

IDEA OF SEQUESTER ORIGINATED FROM WHITE HOUSE

Some Say Sequester Was Obama’s Idea.
Chris Wallace, ...

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No Smart Way?
What Happened to “Line-By-Line”?

Remember when President Obama prided himself on the desire to get out the red pen and go “line-by-line, page-by-page” through the federal budget to eliminate waste and inefficiency?  That was a long time ago.  Now, the White House is changing its tune.  When it comes to the sequester, “line-by-line” is “piecemeal.”  And that’s no way to do business in Washington … at least if you want to hold onto your political leverage for...

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No Smart Way?
Debt Hoarders

More and more lawmakers in Washington are lining up to say we don’t have a spending problem and are ready to defend their massive deficits that add trillions to the debt.  But a new poll from Public Notice shows that the vast majority of Americans disagree; the best way to improve the economy is by cutting spending and exercising some fiscal restraint.  At the same time, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is warning that the debt is unsustainable without...

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Spending Daily | April 29, 2013

 “Democrats ask: What debt crisis?”

POLITICO reports, “Call them the debt crisis dissenters. The two parties are miles apart on how to cut the deficit and national debt: Republicans want to slash spending even more. Democrats want to raise revenue. And then there are the other Democrats — the ones who reject the entire premise of the current high-stakes fiscal fight. There’s no short-term deficit problem, they say, and there isn’t even an urgent debt...

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When the sequester first took effect, the Democrats who run Washington said they would only replace it with tax hikes – not smarter spending cuts.  Then, earlier this week, as thousands of Americans waited on the runway because of the FAA’s manufactured flight delay crisis, Harry Reid dropped legislation to replace the sequester with phony savings – not actual spending reductions.  But today, Democrats joined Republicans to adopt our targeted “cut this, not that” approach to cut wast...

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No Smart Way?
Question for the White House

For months the White House has warned of the dire consequences of the sequester, maintained there is “no smart way” to cut spending and even threatened to veto a bill that would give them that flexibility.  They were wrong.  After insisting for months that the only way to deal with a 1.4 percent budget cut in the Department of Transportation was to furlough air traffic controllers and cause massive delays, it took less than a week for Congress to...

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Spending Daily | April 26, 2013

“Bill to End Airport Delays Headed for House Vote”

The Associated Press reports, “Legislation to end furloughs of air traffic controllers and delays for millions of travelers is headed to a House vote after a dark-of-night vote in the Senate that took place after most lawmakers had left the Capitol for a weeklong vacation. The bill passed late Thursday without even a roll call vote, and House officials indicated it likely would be brought up for quick appro...

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No Smart Way?
White House Whiplash

Avoiding the sequester was “not impossible.” Or maybe it was. The White House’s hands are tied when it comes to granting agencies flexibility. Well, actually, except for meat inspectors. And Customs and Border Protection. And the Bureau of Prisons. And TSA. And Vice President Joe Biden’s office. But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)? Definitely no flexibility for them. Taxpayers are waiting for hours at the airport, airline industry officials a...

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No Smart Way?
Real Men of Genius Edition

Today, we salute you, lawmakers in Washington. No one can knowingly avoid fixing the sequester for two years, then panic when it goes into effect quite like you can. But now, it seems you’ve done the impossible: rather than playing your usual blame-game, you actually put on your thinking caps, took out a red pen, and are figuring out ways to avoid furloughs in some of your departments!

ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS “NO SMART WAY” TO AVOID SEQUESTER

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Spending Daily | April 25, 2013

FAA Management: “Make Furloughs as Hard as Possible for the Public”
The Wall Street Journal editorializes, “The Federal Aviation Administration claims the sequester spending cuts are forcing it to delay some 6,700 flights a day, but rarely has a bureaucracy taken such joy in inconveniencing the public. Though the FAA says it is strapped for cash, the air traffic control agency managed to find the dollars to update its interactive ‘command center’ tool o...

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Or, Gadzooks, This Giant Sequester-Monster Is Going to Devour Us All!

Back in 1997, I was a youngish, single man living in Los Angeles—working in the entertainment industry and living in a studio apartment in the Virgil District. I had arrived in LA a few months earlier, just in time for — *insert scary music here* – EL NIÑO.

It was certainly a rainy year as a result of El Niño—unusually so, as I later learned. You see, to me, having not lived in Los Angeles before, it was ju...

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Spending Daily | April 24, 2013

“Sheriff Joe” Avoids Sequester Furloughs

ABC News reports, “The automatic federal spending cuts known as the sequester are forcing thousands of government employees – from air traffic controllers to White House staff – to take unpaid days off. As White House Press Secretary Jay Carney put it, ‘everyone’s affected by this.’ Well, maybe not everyone. One executive branch leader has found a way to make the cuts without forcing people out of ...

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Gimmick It Up
Using Fake Money To Offset Real Cuts

Remember that windfall of cash you got from graduating college and finally being able to do something with that extra tuition money?  Or when you hit the real jackpot by staying home that one weekend your friends went out to Vegas?  No? You need to check your Overlooked Contingency Fund.  That’s where all that real money goes – just waiting to be accessed and spent.  

Harry Reid Has Located The Overseas Contingency Fund:

Harry Reid ...

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