March 1, 2011

CBS said that? Government Wasting Your Money.

The only thing surprising about this CBS News piece about government waste, is that CBS News actually ran it.  This is the network of Dan Rather and Mary Mapes. So why did they do it?  They did it because they actually believe it can help President Obama.

The devil is in the details  - witness the off handed line in the story (emphasis added);

The federal government could save billions in taxpayer dollars annually by consolidating duplicative government programs, according to a new report.
The newly-released report from the Government Accountability Office "makes us all look like jackasses," Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told reporters Monday night.

The conservative senator said the report -- which identifies redundancies in more than 546 individual programs -- reveals why the United States is $14 trillion in debt.

"Anybody who says we don't look like fools up here hasn't read the report," he said.
The report is the product of President Obama's executive order calling for a government-wide review of federal regulations. At the time, the president said the regulatory review would seek to eliminate rules that stifle job creation, are redundant, or are just "plain dumb."

The GAO reviewed 34 areas (among them agriculture, defense and social services) where agencies, offices or initiatives have similar or overlapping objectives. The report also looked at 47 additional cost-saving opportunities related to more general government efficiency. For instance, the report said, "Improved corrosion prevention and control practices could help [the Defense Department] avoid billions in unnecessary costs over time."
Don't wait for the spin to start - "President Obama has to be serious about government waste because look at what his Executive Order turned up". Don't let them fool you. This is the same man who, during the campaign against John McCain in 2008 said that government spending needed to be gone over with a scalpel and not a hatchet. The White House will spin this, and the media will spin this as Obama's being a bona fide fiscally austere President. This is still the same man who presided over a $1.5 trillion plus deficit, breaking his own previous record from last fiscal year.  He doesn't care about fiscal restraint just like he doesn't care about foreign affairs.  Worse in fact.  He is actively anti-fiscal-restraint.

I can't imagine the spin being all too successful but I'd advise conservatives and Republicans to get out in front of this news and own the cost-cutting political space. It's ours to lose and doing so will cost us the 2012 election cycle.

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