Obama Campaign To Cut Waste Launches (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is announcing new steps on Monday to reduce government waste, arguing that inefficiency, fraud and abuse are especially troubling during tough economic times.

Obama was to sign an executive order creating the Campaign to Cut Government Waste. According to a draft of the order obtained by The Associated Press, Obama will call for a new oversight board to work with federal agencies to cut back on waste and improve their performance. The order also requires cabinet secretaries to hold regular meetings with Vice President Joe Biden to report progress.

Monday's announcement comes as the White House grapples for ways to both boost sluggish economic growth and quell public anger over the mounting deficit.

"As we work to tackle the budget deficit, we need to step up our game," Obama says in a video message released on Monday. "No amount of waste is acceptable -- not when it's your money; not at a time when so many families are already cutting back."

Biden and other administration officials were to discuss plans to cut back on waste

In prepared remarks for Monday's event, budget director Jacob Lew said wasting taxpayer dollars through inefficiency "is particularly offensive at a time of such fiscal challenges."

One of the campaign's first steps will be targeting waste and duplication among federal websites. The administration will halt the creation of new websites, as well as shut down or consolidate one-fourth of the 2,000 government websites in the next few months.

 

 

Comments

[Avue Tech]

01:17 PM on 06/15/2011

One way that around $2 billion could be saved is by eliminating the Office of Personnel Management in favor of private sector alternatives. Learn more by watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOYrAquR5EI

[Joe Friday]

10:02 AM on 06/15/2011

The humor from this Administration is just so refreshing.

So it's funny that "STIMULUS" failed! What's funny is the big lie about Stimulus. It wasn't designed to do anything beyond prop up the States, save Government jobs and pay-off political favors. "Shovel Ready" was 6 % of the total. Most of those projects were non-existent. HOWEVER, In Joe's State there was one that made the list of top ten "most unnecessary", Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk! The City had the money and were ready to proceed. Joe steps in, pays for the project with Stimulus money and the Town has a huge windfall. Thank you America for buying our boards!

What a crowd of clowns!

[media4me2]

10:22 AM on 06/15/2011

What's really funny are the fools who voted for this clown.

[yoyodyne666]

10:56 PM on 06/14/2011

Great lets see, first disolve congress, homeland security, TSA, and NSA. Then stop invading countries. Then bring our troops home and send them down to wall street to round up those terrorists .....

[julieacp1]

06:03 PM on 06/14/2011

Obama talks a great game!!http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/

[naschkatze]

07:27 PM on 06/14/2011

Bingo.

[carleronn]

04:34 PM on 06/14/2011

Would this include one or two of the 159 different job training programs we have?

[WakeUpinthisCentury]

12:12 PM on 06/14/2011

Must be campaign season. Blah, Blah, government waste, Blah, Blah fraud and abuse, Blah, Blah restructuring government, Blah, Blah another department headed up by Joe Biden. Biden seems to be doing all the heavy lifting for this President since he is in charge of cutting government waste, negotiating with the nasty Republicans on raising the Debt Limit, flying to Afganistan to encourage the troops and meet with Karzai - he is probably the guy in government that actually deserves a raise.

[jamesnpost]

11:12 AM on 06/14/2011

A jet engine on average burns 500 gal/hour. A B-52 with eight engines flies from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to Afghanistan and back, five hours each way. Do the math. Every single B-52 mission burns enough gas to run your car 2000 miles a month for 42 YEARS. From which group of political leaders does the USAF buy all that gas? Chumps. www.postpubco.com/anticyclops.htm

[yoyodyne666]

10:58 PM on 06/14/2011

Thats okay, cause we borrow the money from china.

[sarabono]

11:08 AM on 06/14/2011

Let's see, for as long as I can remember, the goal of every Administration has been to get rid of Government Fraud and Waste.

If they had been even partly successful, the Gov. overhead would be the size of a pea and we would not be $14 Trillion in debt.

[from Idaho]

02:02 PM on 06/14/2011

Reagan wanted to shrink government and set about defunding all the Departments he did not like. There was the HUD scandal. Investigations exposed how Reagan's minions raked off $millions, into their own pockets, that were supposed to go for urban housing projects. A real case of reverse Robin Hood.

Reagan is now considered the hero of supply-side--or trickle-down, or voodoo--economics, which is so strongly pushed by Limbaugh, Washington Post and Fox. For all the Federal job cutting and morale cutting, government actually grew under Reagan, as did the Federal deficit. (Another Reagan scandal was over Defense Department spending and fraud.)

I trust the analytical style of Obama over the bumper-sticker thought processes of the Supply Siders, when it comes to going after government waste.

[yoyodyne666]

11:06 PM on 06/14/2011

Don't forget Cutting SS.

[sarabono]

11:03 AM on 06/14/2011

Well, we could get rid of the Congressional Gym (or at least mirrors in the gym) which has certainly caused problems for a few in the very recent past. This should save at least a few bucks.

[Lemmy]

10:12 AM on 06/14/2011

Another commission whose recommendations he can ignore. Super . . . .

[Voice of Reality]

09:47 AM on 06/14/2011

Millions spent everytime Barry and Chelle Chelle get on a plane. Entourage of 400 not to mention their kids. Why doesn't Barry take his kids to Disneyworld instead of Europe? Why doesn't Barry pay for his own vacations. Good place to start, Barry!

[Shan Wells]

11:28 AM on 06/14/2011

Yes, because the entire trip to Europe was nothing but a vacation. Yawn.

That all you got?

[yoyodyne666]

11:09 PM on 06/14/2011

"Yawn" thats funny. Don't forget the trip to India that cost tax payerers a Bazillion dollars each days, and they stayed at the taj mahollywood instead of a super 8, how dare they waste money that could be better served buying fighter jets and not so dumb bombs.

[Voice of Reality]

09:44 AM on 06/14/2011

Is he resigning?

[RUKidding0]

09:58 AM on 06/14/2011

Funny and highly appropriate.

[RUKidding0]

10:00 AM on 06/14/2011

# 13

[forgetdc]

09:41 AM on 06/14/2011

Fannie Mae is losing billions of dollars every quarter. Why? Because they are spending all their time and money trying to insure against losing money instead of making loans. This effort just makes things worse. They over regulate the appraisal process, then there are fewer and fewer loans that can be done and the result is lower and lower values. This is the exact reason I hate govt solutions. They do not work and always make things worse. There were a few things we needed to tighten up on in the underwriting but the way it is now, it is almost impossible for anyone with rental properties, an Scorp, or a Partnership to get a loan. You can have millions in your IRA and not get approved if you haven't been drawing income for at least 2 years. If there are not enough recent comps to support the value of your property according to the new guidelines then too bad. Doesnt matter if you are a multimillionaire with plenty of income and cash reserves. In addition, the appraisal mgmt companies try to get the cheapest appraisal and keep as much of the fee for themselves as possible. The work is often very poor and it is hard to fight a bad appraisal. The extreme measures implemented by BO and the gang have done nothing more than put a choke hold on the real estate market and have caused more foreclosures than they have prevented.

[yoyodyne666]

11:11 PM on 06/14/2011

I do not think the problem is over regulation, it's toothless regulators.

[Hwrd Sprague]

09:40 AM on 06/14/2011

Saw the video of Obama "joking" that his shovel ready jobs program wasn't so shovel ready. The arrogance of this man has no bounds. Almost $1 trillion borrowed/spent for nothing and he thinks it's something to joke about. Millions out of work and to him they are a bump in the road. What gall

[Shan Wells]

11:28 AM on 06/14/2011

Here's a thought: why don't you actually wait to see the entire clip, instead of regurgitating Brietbart?

[bcicio]

07:04 PM on 06/15/2011

Please! - tell me where the entire clip can be found. I haven't yet seen it on whitehouse.gov - nor anywhere else. Where is the full video so I can help our wayward citizens wake up to the truth!

I'm beginning to think Fox news was the only media in there for the question and answer period. Someone needs to better manage how the whole story gets out via an internet search - all I keep seeing, for pages and pages of results, are the multitude of links by Fox and their cohorts for their continuous, lie-filled rants.

[yoyodyne666]

11:14 PM on 06/14/2011

And the video of bush saying "no wmd's here" while looking under his desk ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKX6luiMINQ

[alvdh1]

09:28 AM on 06/14/2011

Public concern over the deficit? This was invented by the media, republicans and the media. People want jobs and it ranks as voter;s number one concern. It is nothing more than a planned distraction away from jobs. The economy needs another deficit producing stimulus bill in order to prevent a double dip recession.

[forgetdc]

09:30 AM on 06/14/2011

Govt spending on cowboy poetry festivals and hiring more regulators is not stimulus it is corruption, waste, and stupidity.

[alvdh1]

10:24 AM on 06/14/2011

Did you just pull this out of thin air to be silly?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/08/983312/-Dear-GOP:-Obama-and-the-Democrats-are-fixing-the-problem-you-created

[Hwrd Sprague]

09:41 AM on 06/14/2011

why would you want another "stimulus" bill when the first one did nothing to help employment

[alvdh1]

10:23 AM on 06/14/2011

You are using the stale old rethuglican line that has no basis in fact. Your Fixed News habit has obviously clouded your ability to to seek other news sources. The chart below says it all.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/08/983312/-Dear-GOP:-Obama-and-the-Democrats-are-fixing-the-problem-you-created