Spending Daily| June 4, 2013

Obama Threatens Veto on Spending Bills Unless Sequester Ended
According to The Hill, “The White House warned Monday that President Obama will veto spending bills for 2014 unless Congress can agree on a budget framework that ends the sequester.

In Statements of Administration Policy, the White House said Obama would veto all spending bills unless they pass Congress ‘in the context of an overall budget framework that supports our recovery and enables sufficie...

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As The World Turns

Months after dire warnings from the White House, the sequester spending cuts have been left in place, and the world is still turning. But some things never change: The federal government is still growing, taking in record revenue and still wasting billions of it on duplication and inefficiency.  And instead of rooting out the waste, Washington seems intent on maintaining the status quo by making cuts as visible as possible.

AFTER DIRE WARNINGS ON SEQUESTER, SOME LEFT SCRA...

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Spending Daily | May 30, 2013

“Poll: President Obama job approval rating down”

POLITICO reports, “President Barack Obama’s approval rating took a hit amid three controversies surrounding his administration, including an investigation into the IRS unfairly targeting conservative groups seeking nonprofit status, a new poll Thursday showed. Obama has a 45 percent approval rating and a 49 percent disapproval rating — compared with a 48 percent approval, 45 percent disapproval rating from ...

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How President Obama Learned to Stop Worrying and Live with the Sequester

A little more than a month ago White House Press Secretary Jay Carney warned against “piecemeal fixes” to the sequester, insisting that it was a situation that could not be “finessed.” Yet the Federal Aviation Administration, along with Vice President Joe Biden’s office, meat inspectors—and now the National Park Service—managed to find a few ways to do some finessing and carry on with business. And now it see...

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The 12 Percent

 As lawmakers begin round two of their political grandstanding against cutting three cents on the dollar in federal spending, a new report shows that billions are still being wasted.  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently found that only 12 percent of its more than 300 recommendations to “eliminate, combine or modify duplicative programs” have been carried out.  Keep that in mind the next time someone asks if they are going to have to eliminate all funding fo...

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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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