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Subscribe to RSSThe Obama administration says it is saving taxpayers billions of dollars in improper payments to vendors and contractors, the result of a concerted attempt to reduce errors and instances of fraud in outside expenditures. To better coordinate the effort among executive agencies, it is launching a new online tool to cut waste.
The administration planned to announce Thursday that agencies have already exceeded President Barack Obama's goal, set in 2010, of recovering $2 billion in overpayments to contractors by the end of September. The administration has already reported that the government reduced its rate of improper payments in 2010 and 2011, potentially saving $20 billion over the period.
The announcement comes amid a growing scandal over spending at the General Services Administration, the agency in charge of the federal government's buildings and supplies. The agency's inspector general reported this month that the GSA spent about $823,000 for a 2010 conference at a Las Vegas resort.
The administration is drawing attention to its fight on waste as Republicans and the party's likely presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, increasingly cast Obama as a tax-and-spend liberal who has expanded the government.
An administration official provided information on the improper payments effort on condition of anonymity to discuss the program ahead of its announcement.
The official said the administration was able to surpass its savings goal for the current fiscal year with the help of Medicare and Medicaid audits that have lowered excess payments in the health programs.
In his budget plan earlier this year, Obama set a goal of saving $102 billion over the next 10 years by cutting down payment errors and by improving collection of outstanding debts. To help with that effort, the Treasury Department is creating a "Do Not Pay" online site to help match various government databases and keep better track of expenditures.
The technology, officials say, would help target improper pension payments to deceased retirees or payments to contractors who have been barred from doing business with the government.
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Lies,lies, and more lies, Just like the war on women, how come the White House pays the women staffers 18% less than the men staffers? Has the White house recieved a waver from the Lilly Ledbetter law? Now the treasury has a flawed foreclosure program, when did a government program ever work with out waste, fraud, and abuse. The Government needs to get the hell out of the way and out of the mortgage business.
You getting your info from the Tabloid ?
And......Republicans will fix all this like they did under Emperor George?? When did the foreclosures start you might ask yourself before raging on about the current administration.....that while is far from perfect at least trying to recover some stability in the face of tremendous opposition from .............you guessed it the same people who caused the messes in the first plae
StormerF
The AIG CEO Greenberg lobbied for laws that favored AIG and he got the government to give him what he wanted. Look where that got us.
Patriotic American U.S.A.
he will not tell you were he gets his information from because he just pulled it out of his a$$.
While I agree that the government needs to get out of the mortgage business (or at least, greatly reduce it's involvement), what does that have to do with this article?
The Obama administration knew about the GSA scandal 11 months before it was made public. That is when the Inspector General began his investigation. Until it was made public they said absolutely nothing, and did nothing. Only when the utter waste of taxpayers dollars was front page news did the light bulb click on in the oval office.
Obama simply does not care when you ratchet up spending to the levels he has done, whats a little waste here and there? The spending in the GSA peaked in 2010, yet Obama blames Bush? We have a culture of excess in Washington, and if I remember correctly Obama promised it would not be business as usual under his administration. Yeah right. What is more accurate is to say what the public doesn't know is good for Washington.
Obama gets to rehash 2 year old speeches and plans that have had zero results in two years and his sheople cheer.
When will results matter to you fools?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/Background_on_Accountable_Government_Initiative.pdf
obama is a total ass......he talks about savings after blowing billions on a failed stimulus package and Solyndra?....are you obama supporters stupid or naive?........ROMNEY!
I love how it always gets back to Bush. Most Republicans I know weren't that fond of Bush due to his spending. Also our problems today date back 80 years so blaming our current situation on one presidency is lunacy. Some have done better than others but the deficit has increased under EVERY president the last 80 years. Bush and Obama have accelerated that to new levels. Obama preaching fiscal responsibility is rich from someone that has yet to present a budget without a trillion dollar shortfall. That's just irresponsible and quite frankly not even putting together a good effort.
So - President Obama far exceeds the goal to cut wasteful spending and the teabaggers, the people that should be celebrating the most, still hate him for it. Not even a thank-you for his efforts. The little evangelical freaks the teabaggers put in office in 2010 have done absolutely nothing other than lower our credit rating - driving up our interest rates, and pushing the fascist evangelical social agenda.
I've come to the distinct conclusion that teabaggers are mindless idiots driven by hate and single sentence catch phrases. They are not even smart or clever enough to conceal that the hate is obviously racially motivated...and when called on it they will only barf out the old KKK reverse racism so devoutedly adhered to by their leader in the white sheet, Rush Limbaugh. "Oh no!! They're playing the race card!!"
The President achieves a teabagger goal and the teabaggers hate him for it. Disgusting.
Rightwingnuts are out in full force. The president does what the repugnants should be applauding but they bash him instead. Crybaby nutcases.
I don't care whether a Democrat or a Republican is in the White House, I would like to know who is actually in charge of "our money" that lets these kinds of things happen in the first place.
Personally, I think for every person that is hired to hand out "our money" there should be one that is checking for fraud. I am not one for big government, but I would approve of that.
Dear NBC,
You are destroying your credibility with stories like this.... another time, another administration your headlines would have been filled with your reporting on the abusive character of a corrupt administation evidenced by the GSA. Rather you report undocumented comments as facts with unverifiable numbers "$20 billion in savings" then insultingly veil your hypocrisy as an attempt fair reporting. I guess the conclusion of your article is why should we worry about the mere millions being wasted when the administration is saving your imagined billions. Once more the fantasy of macro-vision is only possible with a denial of commen sense. Macro-vision is the delusion that somehow if the program is big enough it escapes the common sense of an application in your own family or neighborhood.
Every family ought to implement a plan... take from the ones... who got out of bed, pulled up their pants, studied, went to bed so they could rise early the next day, paid attention in school, did well, dressed for success that is with respect are happy to work hard, save money etc... and give their money to the ones who are too important to have to bother with the above. How much success would that family have... how much resentment would be produced. Reward the ones that blame their lack of success on others and not on their own lack of effort.
A lame "Crisis Management" response to the GSA fiasco.
When, oh when, is Mr. Obama going to do a top-down review of ALL government agencies for Fraud, Waste, and Abuse as promised in his 2008 Presidential campaign speeches ? Maybe that will be a talking point for him on the 2012 campaign trail since this is another one of the FAILED promises.
But that is OK. The Liberals will eat it up.
The "Obama Bucks" are running out.
The number one failure of the Obama administration's reaction to the GSA scandal was waiting 11 months to fire the top administrator responsible for it. I would expect that Eric Holder would be looking into this matter since I know for a fact that fraud and falsification of government records took place on this Las Vegas party and a couple of other GSA related indiscretions.
I applaud the Obama administration on any effort to identify and reduce the fraud that occurs. However, criminal charges need to follow to deter other contractors from doing the same thing. Also, I think that the government should introduce a cost saving initiative and if the idea is implemented, the person submitting the idea should receive a monetary reward as a percentage of the government savings.
Is there anyone in America that dumb to believe this BS? Apparently there are. With about $1 Trillion of stimulus money going to Obama's cronies and no jobs being produced who the heck believes anything about this administration says about cutting waste? Solyndra? Yup, great example of cutting waste. "Green jobs"? Another great example of cutting waste. The fact is that the only waste that Obama supports want cut out is a visit from Obama to their place of business and Obama touting it as the future. If that happens they are assured, based on history of the past 3 years, that the business will be out of business.
I don't want to hear Obama's figures. Let's have the figures from the GAO (not to be confused with the GSA)
A government program to reward folks who report Fraud is already in force and a significant amount of $$$ has already been paid out. However, this program is NOT enough to stem the Fraud, Waste, and Abuse within each government agency.
It is amazing that the above program covers "reporting tax evasion", yet 41 Obama White House staffers and some aides, along with HUNDREDS of elected "elite" Congressional Representatives and HUNDREDS of government workers FAIL TO PAY THEIR BACK IRS TAXES (tax evasion) and the IRS nor the DOJ will take these folks to Federal Court:
If you have corrupt elected officials in the Congressional Halls doing CORRUPT things, and they are the ones writing laws to deter CORRUPTION, who do you think will report them or even take Judicial action against them ? They are CROOKS....plain and simple.
Yep, let's get that GAO report out and see how much Fraud, Waste, and Abuse are reported in EACH government agency and NO ONE will be taken to task.....and we can start with DHS, DSHS, FEMA, DOE, and the DOD.
jimsepa....."Crybaby nutcases."
Now that should be redirected to Flyeisty the Red Head and Bev in Cheeeecago since most of their Liberal rhetoric has been meaningless and without FACTS.
Let me get this straight......Mr. Obama and his cohorts in crime are now pushing to SAVE TAXPAYER DOLLARS ?
You have to be kidding everyone. If Mr. Obama is set on SAVING TAXPAYER DOLLARS, then why did he allow his daughters be designated "Senior Staff" on an African vacation trip ?
The Hypocrisy of this administration has reached an all TIME HIGH !!!!
Where are the Liberals on defending this designation of his daughters as "Senior Staff" ?
The President promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first administration. That means that the 2012 federal deficit cannot exceed 229.27 billion dollars yet the White House is predicting a 2012 deficit of over 1.3 trillion dollars. A savings goal of 102 billion over a ten year period does not even come close. it is nothing. Instead of saving 10 billion dollars this year the Obama administration needs to cut current spending by over one hundred times that amount. To keep the President's promise the administration needs to save more than one trillion dollars right now, this fiscal year. I want the President to explain to the American people how he is going to keep his promise regarding the deficit. Remember that the President made this promise without any preconditions so keeping his promise is not dependent on any action of congress. I want the President to explain what it is going to take to pay back all of this money that we have been borrowing.
"An administration official provided information on the improper payments effort on condition of anonymity to discuss the program ahead of its announcement."
So...... If this story is true, why the anonymous source? Same as the story about how we saved money on TARP because an anonymous official said he estimates we will.
People speaking the truth very rarely remain anonymous.
People acting in an official capacity speaking truthfully NEVER do.
Pretty good strategy from the administration huh, you can never quote these anonymous officials, or call them on it if it turns out to be lies.
Yeah, that's how I want my govt to work.
NOT!
I'm sure that if the Republicans get into the white house, they will find a way to undo the good that Obama has done, increase military spending and drive us further into debt. They invented the deficit spending strategy and have shown they have no problem abusing it, they blew 5 trillion on the Iraq war before Obama ever got elected.
Have we forgotten about Obama's 1,000 mile detour, on Air Force One, with his wife and kids, and loads of secret service, just so they could enjoy the Coco cabana in Rio? Ya, with elections coming up, his new motto is "lets save money".
Or that Bush spent 120 of his first 180 days in office on vacations. Way to work for America.
Really? Couldn't they have saved more by only allowing Obama to take or send his family on one vacation a year like the rest of the country? Couldn't they have saved a lot more if Obama had not thrown upwards of a billion dollars at "green" companies that went bankrupt and with guarentees that "investors" read that Obama contributors got any money left BEFORE tax payers? The only crack down I've seen is some on Medicare providers, which isn't nearly enough investigative work. Gee, how much could they have saved by not having to pay Secret Service to accompany Allia and 25 of her friends to Mexico after the State Department warned citizens against going to Mexico. Oh, maybe that warning was just to keep us from seeing the vacation splurge.
JonSMith, No President, either REpublican or Democrat has ever increased our debt by the numbers Obama has so save the BS. Really, the Republicans invented the deficit spending? Show me where you can prove that line of BS.
JonSmith93903
If you are going to tell a lie, you should bear in mind that small lies are more believable than big ones.
Will Haas
We know this President is all promises promises and no truth. His data gathering through his Narwhal, big brother watching, room proves he is determined to say anything, promise anything to try to get re-elected and all of it is BS. What good has he done? Doubled the number of people on food stamps. Increased the number of americans living in the poverty class. Whined that our Constitution gets in the way of what he promised! Really? The Constitution will save us from his biggest fiasco, Obamacare and his plan to get as much of it in place before it is shot down won't work. BECAUSE, the day it is tossed out by SCOTUS, the American people will demand things go back as they were the day before it passed his Democrat controlled Congress. Imagine how much more damage he could have done if the Republicans had not taken the House in 2010 to just say NO to his Socialist endeavors.
OBXRon
Shouldn't you be asking when did the Democrats start thier plan to let everyone have a house whether they could pay for it or not? You could also ask why the Democrat controlled Congress stopped Bush from putting back tougher lending laws so that there would be fewer foreclosures on the horizen. You probably don't want to know those things if you are a Democrat and especially if your are an OBama supporter.
Dear shaking your empty head...
"During 2 terms as President, Bush spent all or of part of 487 days at Camp David, on retreats and made 77 trips to his Crawford Ranch, in Texas, where he spent all or part of 490 days, on his Ranch.
The total number of days of vacation or retreat President Bush took, while in office over a period of 8 years was 977 days, or 32% of his total time in office, was spent on vacations or retreats." CBS News
Or maybe CBS is also just one of those liberal news stations...truth hurts...
John
ANSWER - CONGRESS
A president cannot spend one penny without congress approving it first. The president Proposes a budget with his ideas. Congress either approves that or writes its own spending.
Once you follow specifically who controls congress, you will find that some Republican controlled congresses spend too much and most Democrat controlled spend way much more.
Gone are the days of 1919 and 1920 when the republicans cut a budget of 18 Billion to 6 Billion in one year. This is because of entitlements, which did not exist back in 1920.
What we have is a government that needs to cut hundreds of billions and have a president who putting a ridiculous effort to raise another 2 - 3 Billion from rich people.
How much has the government been saving by using both sides of pieces of paper or has that yet to be implemented? How much has putting more air in their tires been saving them. I would think that the President could save the government a bundle by just staying in Washington and making his speeches to the people from there. What ever happened to fire side chats. Does not the President realize that TV will bring him into almost every home in America. I do not think that it is a problem making the text of each of his speeches available on the Internet. The President promised to go over the health care bill "line by line" with my congressman and ever other law maker in Washington. He also promised that all proceedings would be televised on CSPAN. Considering the size of the bill I assume that the broadcasts are going to keep him in Washington for quite a while because there is very little time left in his current administration to get this done and there is always the chance that he may never have a second administration. I am sure that the broadcasts will take place because the President always keeps his promises because he is the President of the United States of America. All hale the chief. Gitmo is still closed is it not. Does anyone know when the broadcasts are to begin because I do not want to miss a minute?
Don't get alarmed about this news article. It's just another attempt to create a better Obama image as we get closer to the elections.
Rational folks chuckle, for it's nothing more than the Obama Media Super Pac story. Intelligent people can determine the actual results of overspending, by which party in control, and by which president.
Time to use the blame-game Mr. President, if you can find someone new to throw under the bus. If you actually have the desire to clean house, start from within.
Well just saying it should be enough for all the Obama supporters to wave their flags. But when Washington has to pass pretend legislation to appear to put and end to insider trading, and Obama goes along with that sort of circus. Well lets just say appearances are what is important to the Obama administration.
Most Republicans voted for it so you need to give credit to them too.
I believe President Obama has the best interest of all Americans at heart and I'm an Independent !
OBAMA/2012 "GUARANTEED"
Rick - concerning this article, what is wrong with reducing waste and fraud? Why can't you just say, in this case, Obama is doing a good thing? I'm very disappointed with Obama overall, but when he does something I like, I give him credit. We need to be focused on the merits of individual ideas and actions, and not the political party of the messenger...
Patriotic - methinks you are not very independent...I could be wrong, but I've read your posts for months and you seem to be very hard-line Democrat to me... Have you voted for any Republicans in the last few elections?
I'm a moderate independent and I find it very difficult to find any Republican who has not bought into the extremism of the far right. Therefore, I also find it very difficult to find a Republican I am comfortable voting for.
I believe President Obama has the best interest of all Americans at heart ...
If he truly had our best interests at heart, he'd resign. Think of all the waste we would eliminate and all the money we would save then.
Ron what is wrong with reducing fraud and waste? Nothing. But 3.5 years later Obama has done nothing. Obama couldn't find so much as a dime of spending to cut, and his reaction to this scandal is only because it has become embarrassing. There is waste and fraud all through the government, and Obama promised to change the culture in Washington. Oh, he must need more time right?
I'm a moderate independent and I find it very difficult to find any Republican who has not bought into the extremism of the far right.
Face it, if you believe the above statement and think that Obama is a moderate, then you are not a "moderate independent" you're a liberal Democrat.
You have to remember that most of the GSA suppliers are owned by Republicans.
Bitterhawk, thanks for proving my point. Anyone who doesn't agree with the far right is deemed a liberal. I voted for Jon Huntsman in New Hampshire - a moderate Republican. Look what happened to him, he never got above 1% in the party of extremists. I might even like Romney if he weren't such a flip flopping phony and pathological liar.
upset- Romney is actually considered a moderate by most Republicans which is why he has had problems garnering the support of the "far right" and also why John Huntsman endorsed him. As for him being a "flip flopping phony and pathological liar", couldn't you say that about almost all politicians? The electorate is so diverse demographically that it requires all politicians to "do the dance" if they hope to have a chance at being elected. It's unfortunate that you and many others are incapable of seeing behind the rhetoric as this is why a patent fraud like Obama was elected to begin with.
Patriotic American U.S.A.-
Please explain why as an independent you are voting for Obama...
And are you sure you used the proper word? I think you meant ignorant, not independent...
upset: I know how you feel. I'm a bit so-so on Obama's record (too much spending), despise Congress (too partisan), and find the GOP too extreme to consider these days. No one represents people like us.
Ant-waste would be the Tea ReTards in Congress l would say !
Just about every government organization would be bankrupt in the real world. There is absolutely NOTHING that runs efficiently in the government. If he wanted to control waste he would be shutting down departments that haven't performed instead of just creating new ones.
The U.S. Post Office has a labor cost of 80%, when FedEx and UPS have 53% and 35% labor costs respectively.
In other words, the USPS employees are grossly overpaid and benefitted.
In the real world, this is a formula for failure...BANKRUPTCY....CLOSURE.
In the communist world, it means nothing...it continues to operate while trimming services, raising prices and eventually coming to a halt under its own overwhelming weight.
If you had ever run a business or had an education, you would know these things.
If you had ever run a business, you would know that you also can't pay decades of prepayments on benefits and survive, the way Congress has forced the USPS to do (the ONLY agency forced to do that). Eliminate that long-term prepayment program, and they just might start to show a profit again.
Truthfinder3,
So, what does that have to do with this article? In this article they talked about some actions the administration has taken to reduce fraud and waste. To me, those sound like good things. Sure, there is plenty of fraud and waste still out there (as there will always be with any large organization), but I'll give them credit for at least trying to reduce it.
Also, ant-trust has a point about the benefits. My understanding is, they have placed a larger burden on USPS than even private companies have for future liabilities. I don't think this accounts for all of their issues, but it certainly doesn't help.
obama is all about fraud and waste..wake up!
Truthfinder:
You do realize that FedEx and UPS charge considerably more for a letter or package to be sent than the USPS, don't you? If the USPS is taken out of government hands, you will be sending your letters at a cost of $2 or $3, instead of $.47. Is that your wish?
Anyone who has ever done business with the government knows they don't know what they are doing (unless if spending for nothing is their goal). That's democrats, republicans, GSA employees....the whole lot. They're goal is to always raise expenses, spend more, hire more, while most people sit around all day feeling important, starting pointless crusades and internal drama, while generating / contributing nothing.
It's one big scam on both sides of the aisle. Pretend to fight while you pocket more of the people's money through a vast smoke and mirrors operation. Vote for whoever you want - you're screwed either way.
Yeah, Obumbler hacks, tell us another lie about "savings" while your admin has broken the records of ALL presidents by blowing away our hard earned money! Go tell that to the dumbazzes who voted for you on your promise of "change',lol.
Where are your facts to prove your nonsense? And I'm not a flaming liberal either. I'm a GDI who doesn't support ANY politician. At least this administration has posted online where money is being spent, just as this article says they are now doing to show how they are working to eliminate waste. This is the FIRST administration that has been so transparent. Take time to do a little research before venting your spleen.
...has broken the records of ALL presidents by blowing away our hard earned money!
Well, no, Obama has NOT broken the record of all presidents. He hasn't beaten Bush's record yet. $6.1T in debt and an economy in the toilet - and Republicans want a chance to do it again?
I agree, lets not make another mistake like "W" !!!!!!!!
Bush added 4.8 trillion to the debt and got tagged for the wall street bailout even though he only had control of half the money. President downgrade has added over 6 trillion in just over 3 years.
Where is the transparency in fast and furious, or how his administration just completely eliminated 2 million jobs from the books so the unemployment numbers look better, oh yeah they don't even count those whose benefits have expired.
trico77
the president did not cause the downgrade - it was Congress or the inaction of Congress.
I'd say the downgrade was caused by decades of living beyond our means - and I expect future downgrades because we are still living far beyond our means.
Trico: Your numbers don't include the $1.4 Trillion ANNUAL shortfall wrapped in a nice red bow that he handed to Obama. W also crashed the entire economy and left if for somebody else to fix. I also find your photo-shopped picture of the President to be very disrespectful and I may even add that the act of posting that garbage opens the door for accusations of racism.
upset -
Presidents don't crash or repair economies. We, the people, do that.
Brian: Economic policy had a lot to do with the housing market crash and the financial system meltdown. It's called regulation, or lack thereof. Administrations absolutely have an impact on the economy with the policy they implement. Don't kid yourself.
Upset - How about we place the blame were it's due then. The deregulation started with Carter and was expanded by both Republican and Democratic Administrations and Legislatures for 3 decades.
Trico,
please source your info on the dept Bush added.. i dont think you are including the surplus he blew or the billions this country will spend on healthcare for all of the wounded soldiers that fought this falsely sold war? Bush's dent to the economy and the dept is still growing far more than that $4.1 tril you claim.
Obama 2012!!
I know we all keep hearing about Bush adding more to the national debt thanObama, so I went and looked up the real numbers. These are official government reports.
I compared the last 4 (four) years of Bush to the first 2 (two) years and 10(ten) months of Obama. First you will see the total debt added by each for the time periods above. Then you will see what it is average per month during those periods.
Bush 4 years = Jan. 9. 2009 = 10.6 Trillion total
Bush start of last 4 years = Jan. 9 2005 = 7.6 Trillion total
Obama start of last 2 years and 10 months = 10.6 Trillion total
Obama Nov. 9 2011 = 15.04 Trillion total
Bush 4 years added 3.0 Trillion
Obama 2 years 10 months added 4.4 Trillion total
Bush aded an average of 0.0625 Trillion a month
Obama added 0.1219 Trillion a month
So the facts are that Obama is adding debt to the USA deficit at a rate twice as fast as Bush. Now people of the Obama camp have blamed Bush for all this. But after almost 3 years, two of which the Democrat party had total control (President, Senate and House), it is wearing pretty thin as a continuing excuse.
Reference: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np
The "I" of the first sentence is not me but the author of the article.
Watermoon - Your numbers are misleading at best. They only show the resulting carnage done to the deficit; not the causes, which are the policies that preceeded the devestation. Typical GOP misinformation, but thanks for posting it again, we've all seen it before.
upset, Watermoons numbers have nothing to do with the deficit. They have to do with the national debt.
What have you been engineering the last three years that you think he hasn't exceeded Bush's spending?
And the obama anti-waste program is also having an effect at the gas pumps too. Gasoline consumption is dropping. Number of miles still increasing. Waste decreasing. Avg mpg increasing. In my area, gas prices falling. But hey, even higher mpg cars coming next year. Better car batteries. The avalon will get the gas mileage of a fiat 500. Top of the line luxury cars get 30 mpg overall. Impala gets 37 mpg. Gains in battery tech has already been amazing. Soon we will be driving elec cars. Thanks obama.
The GOP/TP put their buddies the 1% up to increasing gas prices, if you are having gas pains stop voting for these Nuts !
Those are coal fired cars
There are lots of states that have very little or no coal burning plants !!!
It just is not fair to keep refuting the liberal lies with facts. Oh well ... .
Source: http://www.reasonmeetsfaith.com (http://s.tt/15Qua)
@watermoon, very well put. But you have to be careful if you disagree with ANYTHING the current potus stands for, you will be labelled a racist, short sighted bigot, teabagger, or a half brainer. Liberals hate it when people confront them with facts, and much like any preschooler, will start throwing disparaging remarks and comments your way, and fast! Add the fact that his energy secretary, Mr. Cho (sp?), gave himself an "A+" for his handling of this energy crises, that, in itself, shows how out of touch these ivy league educated, self professed "experts" are with the rest of the country. What I find astounding is that these "independents" and bleeding heart liberals will line up to defend this president with all of their collective might (pun intended...). Unbelievable! Keep up the good work watermoon, you might get through one, maybe two of these people, but by and large, they have already committed themselves to backing this potus no matter what!
Better car batteries? The Volt costs $40K before the federal tax credit and the Prius costs $26K and there is no tax credit. How does this help the poor at the gas pump. the poor cannot afford these cars.
How come Obama only comes up with savings plans in election years? Could it be that this is his last election and he's looking for "flexibility?
Obama is just campaigning. His administration comes up with whatever numbers he decides he wants to campaign on. It's sad Obama thinks people are still listening to him.
He only needs to lie for a few more months. As he told that Russian leader, he won't be accountable to the voters after November and then will have the flexibility he needs to do whatever he wants.
Just like GSA. Obama is all talk and no action. The only people still believing what he says are those that would believe anything he says.
How many trillions will this cost to save a few pennies. I learned a lot about government waste watching president downgrades stimulus...
Not a fan of the President, but in this case I'll agree with him that the government should take steps to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse.
A step in the right direction.
There have been no steps, this is the same speech we got a couple of years ago and still no results.
When will results matter to you people?
Not his fault. He inherited this problem from Bush. Can't expect him to fix anything. You knew when you elected him that he had no experience in these matters and now you complain that he is not able to do so. You people are so unfair!
Ruken, just in case you were not sure this is already two years old.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/Background_on_Accountable_Government_Initiative.pdf
Watmoon if he has no experience why the heck would you vote for him or better yet why the heck is he running at all.
just more blather from the blatherer in chief....
Put some capitalism into government if you want to find money. Every agency that finds a way to cut cost gets to split that money with tax payers. If we did this on all government levels we would have so much money.
Find $10000, $5000 goes to taxpayers, $2500 as bonuses and the other $2500 to me, just kidding, to their retirement plans.
Except for the part about your cut of the savings, that's a pretty good idea.
Good morning Mark, the more they spend, the more they get crap kills us and it happens at all levels of government.
I had a friend who worked for the state in the Keys. At the end of their fiscal year they bought a bunch of high-end kayaks for beach clean ups, never did any. Also, the supervisor would not let them do simple repairs, she always subbed them out for outrages prices. She probably got a kick-backs. I would rather she and her employees got a bonus for saving me money.
Unlike private enterprise where performance is pretty easy to ascertain, it's difficult to determine if a government program is effective and efficient, but obviously government employees put much more weight on being effective than efficient becasue no one cares how much a program costs as long as it delivers. That has to change.
And you are right, programs or departments that don't spend all their budget are given a smaller budget the next year. Devising proper incentives for performance are really difficult for public sector employees.
You should submit your idea to your congressman. Seriously!
Time to get rid of baseline budgeting so I never have to hear the phrase draconian cuts ever again.. Thanks libs for this budgeting that only the federal government uses.
truthfinder - If you want the whole truth how about finding out how much of Fedex and UPS labor cost is hidden by using contractors.
And do the same in Iraq. The president is proclaiming so much savings by bringing the troops home but he is not telling us that many of the services they had been performing have been replaced by contractors that are costing us as much or more. Not only are contractors rebuilding the country but now contractors are supplying the security for them. And no, one does not hear about this on the network news, The media moguls there don't think it is important that you know these things. Google it or watch Fox News if you want to not be spoon fed what you are allowed to know.
GSA trip to Las Vegas is just the tip of the iceberg to that corrupt agency and the agency is the tip for the bloated bureaucracy. Today we learn - not yet in the network news of course - that the agency sent a half dozen employees to Hawaii for a week to attend a one hour ribbon cutting ceremony at a cost of over $300,000 to taxpayers. And we learn that this was an regularly occurring theme there. Finally a House committee is going to investigate this agency. Hopefully the investigation will go forward to many other agencies as you can be sure this is not ann isolated case. Instead of taxing the private sector more Mr Obama, why not get the spending in your administration under control first. And yes, the GSA is an executive branch division under his direct,authority and control - and his responsibility. And so he blames Bush of course as he sure inherited this problem.
Issa is the busiest man in washington.. nothing but fraud from this administation. They'll be busy for years after bama loses this election.
Not much accountability the first two years when the Dems controlled both Houses.
Still no budget from the senate in over 3 years now. Pathetic!!!!
abolish GSA!
You have to remember that the GSA class was turned into a REPUBLICAN Party that evening, and it was a REPUBLICAN smir money that provide all the alcohol. It was an intentional move made by the REPUBLICAN PARTY to make government as a whole - look bad.
Fosz - I guess you haven't read Martha Johnson's biography yet. She is an active Democratic politcal appointee all the way back to Clinton and was part of Obama's transition team.
What? Hard to interpret the Fosz writing and even harder to see how an agency in Obama's administration had anything to do with Republican bartenders? Smir?
This corrupt bloated beached whale of a wasteful corrupt bureaucracy has been building to this waste and fraud for decades - under both administrations. Obama saw it and promised to go through each agency with a fine tooth comb and stop the abuses. After three years we are seeing how much his promises mean. Instead of taxing the private sector more it is time to clean up that cesspool in DC!
fosz are you saying that this is bush's fault?
Obama/Biden : 283 more days
283 days left until another 1,460 days.
After which Hillary will be president!
that's cute Mark but you know that's not what I meant...
Government needs to much more to stem the waste. For example: No more blowouts at luxury resorts like the GSA & SS had. All meeting, conferences should be held at existing government locations where no travel is required. No alcohol at any level of government. All government employees fly lowest fare coach.
Obama specifically promised that he would stop the conferences to Las Vegas in his 2008 campaign.
Obama reminds me of the guy from SNL, the pathological liar, except at the end of his lies he doesn't say, "Yea, yea, that's the ticket."
At least he hasn't made a false claim of WMD's, has he?
No, I think his best one yet was,"If we pass this stimulus unemployment will not go below 8%" yea, yea, that's the ticket. LOL
No only false claims about his healthcare law, the stimulus, the republican war on women, trayvon martin, number of uninsured, unemployment numbers. Just a couple of examples. I read one that asked, How do you know when bama is lying. Whenever his lips move. how true.
That would make perfect sense - if you had said "Every Republican Ever" instead of "Obama" !
Great one canon.. Don't forget how shovel ready those projects were.
Harbinger-2218646 - Well at least I glad that it made enough sense for your simple mind to grasp the context of the comment.
Sally Ann Google "Bill Clinton on Iraq's WMDs" and get back to us.
Does anyone notice what is happening? During the Bush Administration Bush was surrounded with his Conservative Millionaires and Lawyers that allowed the Bush Administration to put forth some of the most absurd laws, The Patriot Act into existance along with allowing gas prices to increase which was once again backed his millionaire and lawyer buddies.
Now that President Obama has the same backing the GOP and Tea Party does not like what is happening because what they did to people during the Bush Administration is now being done back on them two fold and they don't like it.
Rubbing both eyes with my tear reducers.
thanks for the dumbest post ever.
I am a Republican and all for this effort. But it is pure window dressing and does ZERO to address the crux of the matter.
Which is runaway govt. spending courtesy of our Provost in Chief. The public sector cannot do ANYTHING as well as the private sector. Note to Dems: don't bring up Bush we all know he spent too much but Obama has amassed more debt in 3 years than Bush did in 8. Obama's brilliant decision to fix Bush's spending by spending even more is moronic. Two wrongs never make a right.
Want to buy some stamps? They can use the money.
We need private sector oversight of government expenditures to root out waste, abuse and fraud.
Oh, right!
Wall St. does such a great job with oversight! Maybe Bain Capital could take a whack at it.
No thanks.
I'll stick with an elected government, thank you!
Harbinger - the free markeplace does that. And morons who do not do due diligence before investing are the issue. We don't need govt. to do that.
In the end, risk capital and investing are just that - risk. Some win, some lose.
Common sense is too difficult a concept by liberals with over-active craniums.
So that's what you think is wrong with America?
People thinking too much?
Harbinger - you are proof of what I wrote. You missed my point entirely. No common sense.
So, you think people should think less?
Wouldn't that make them Republicans?
We'll let the Republicans fuss and fume, while the adults of America work to fix the economic mess the Republicans made.
President Obama proves, once again, that he is the only adult in the room!
Leading from the rear.. The only adults budget for this year voted down 414-0 not even one lib could even bring themselves to vote for it... Last year in the senate bamas budget goes down 97-0.. Healthcare law not one repub. votedfor that piece of sh!t law. No plan brought forward during the debt debate, he will always be remembered as the downgrade pres.
I do give Obama a lot of credit for rising above the petty politics and insults coming from the right. It can't be easy.
Sure thing, Mark. Obama has risen so high above it he won't even negotiate a budget deal. Not even attempt it.
That is the sign of an inept do-nothing president who won't do anything unless he has a majority. He won't sit down and fight for what he believes - he'll just demogouge it to dopes like you who take it all in.
This is wonderful news.
I think rewards trip to Las Vegas for all involved is in order.
The budget for the trip must be used as an absolute guide - no more than the $850,000 ( + inflation ) that the GSA spent for their trip.
LMAO nothing new
Bush gave lots of Americans an all-expenses paid trip to Iraq that put America into ridiculous debt.
But Republicans step over a dollar to pick up a penny...
How many Democrats that voted to go to Iraq did you all vote out? Zero!
Kind of stupid not to fix your side of the aisle and just focus on the other side, isn't it?
Bush lied.
People died.
Harbinger - loves giving himself thumbs up. Typical Dem narcissist.
Is the problem in America that we are thinking too much?
What is your point?
The savings data is complete garbage. And it's nothing to do with democrat/republican politics. It's how the game is played inside every government agency when they're told to scale back their budgets. The all find creative ways to hide or move money around so that it looks like, at a high level, they've saved money. For example, money is cut from one organization's budget, but then that money is split up and distributed to other organizations. Or the money is taken from next year's budget and pushed to either the 2013 or 2014 budget instead.
Just like when the Government says they've "Downsized". All they really do is just close one big organization and then turn around and make a couple new smaller ones and put the employees in there. They report that they downsized 300 employees in one organization, but then don't tell you they created 3 new smaller organizations each with 100 people in them.
I've oversimplified what is really and rather complex process within the government, but it's one that they use every single year and one that they've learned from decades of work at it. You'll never get the government to actually stop spending money, it's not in their nature since it would mean that money that is being obtained from the citizens would have to be either returned next year, or not obtained in future years in the first place.
That's never going to happen.
So it all comes down to being just tricks with accounting, justifications, and "spin". The government never actually "saves" money that's already been programmed for expenditure.
This is comical:
An administration official provided information on the improper payments effort on condition of anonymity to discuss the program ahead of its announcement.
The official said the administration was able to surpass its savings goal for the current fiscal year with the help of Medicare and Medicaid audits that have lowered excess payments in the health programs.
So, nobody knows who said it, where he works or what he does but we're supposed to stand up and cheer for Obama supposedly saving money? Really?! And the dems in here are gloating about a BS story? Truly amazing how gullible the Obamabots have become!
soazDan, do you really have that short a memory? VP Cheney said "deficits don't matter." If it was OK then, why not now? Or is it because a Demo is in, the GOP got voted out of the oval office? The BS can and will flow both ways.
I didn't say a word about deficits Sally Ann. I pointed out the fact that this is an unverified story. I can't take a word of it as truth coming from an anonymous source. I didn't like the Bush spending and I don't like the Obama spending.
Every time Obama gets caught with his pants down there is an answering press release claiming "the problem is being worked".
Just another truckload of BS.
Yep! A statement released under the condition of anonymity...my guess is it was released by the biggest unofficial office in the White House-the "Damage Control Unit". The biggest and busiest under the Obama admin.