With all of the spending that has been going on, this will be about as effective as peeing over Niagara Falls. Nonetheless, I do applaud the fact that government agencies are scaling back just as the rest of us common folk have had to do.
One thing to remember is that had Barry NOT called for these cuts, they would've been spending the money on what some would call wasteful projects (myself included). My comments will be in purple. Some of the cuts that have been made are:
- The Department of Agriculture’s US Forest Service expects to save $1.8 million in FY 2009 by ceasing to re-paint newly purchased vehicles; (Why would you paint NEW vehicles?)
- Numerous agencies will save money by improving energy efficiency and promoting more economical use of resources like water and paper. The Department of the Interior, for example, expects to save almost $1.3 million in utility bills and operating costs by FY 2010 by retrofitting buildings owned by the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service; (Don't break one of those new lightbulbs. The Sierra Club will have a cow!)
- The Department of Justice will save an estimated $4 million in FY 2010 by requiring personnel to make their travel arrangements online, rather than relying on travel agents; (Welcome to the world of technology. What took you so long?)
- The Navy expects to save over $10 million in FY 2009-10 by modifying maintenance procedures for submarines to reduce costs and focus on the highest priority work; and
- The Department of Education plans to increase its reliance on in-house resources for planning events and conferences. ED will require all D.C.-based conference with attendance of 250 people or less to take place in one of the Department’s two buildings – saving upwards of $65,000 a year. They will also eliminate a contract with outside providers to conduct Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act training to education community stakeholders. Instead, ED will be using existing staff to conduct the training, saving $70,000 for FY 2009. (Using existing resources to save money? What a boffo idea!)
Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services: meetings APHIS cancelled a meeting in Australia, saving an estimated $36,000 in travel and per diem. (They were going to Australia for a meeting of domestic issues on our dime. Ain't that nice? They're now thinking of teleconferencing.)
The report lists a total of 77 projects estimated to save $243 million. The rest of the report can be viewed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/blog/admin_savings_appendix_--_final.pdf.
Now if only the First Family would take a lesson and quit with the lavish vacations!
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11 comments:
This is so laughable.
You should see the whole report, Clay. It'll make you go "WTF?"
I'd like to have the red pen and the "line item veto" over spending in a number of those agencies - oh, would the liberals howl.
Most of it is pork and stupid spending in the first place - then again they're spending other people's money so WTF - over?
I go "WTF" whenever I find out what they pay for, propose to pay for, or say they're no longer paying for "to save" money.
I have a unique perspective on this because I once worked for a local municipality. In my years there, every August, the end of the fiscal year would come and the city employees would get sent to spend all remaining money so that the city could get that same amount of money next year. The city workers were literally given the city's credit cards and told to max them out. These things you are listing are evidence of the same activities at the state and national levels.
LL: That would be sweet, wouldn't it? Of course with this crowd, there may be a shortage of red ink.
Dr. Dave: Isn't amazing how easily they spend our money?
Joel: It's a shame that that kind of crap goes on at all levels. Whatever happened to living within their means?
The people that are running the government grew up in the era of credit cards. They've never had to live within their means, but that may change soon as the national credit card is maxed out and America will be filing for bankruptcy soon.
Now, we could sell the food we grow instead of giving it away, we could drill our oil, mine our coal, drill our natural gas and pay for all of Obama's spending and still be rich. But no, that is bad, it is the rest of the world's turn to prosper and in order for that to happen, America must step down to the level of a 3rd world country to make things fair. The problem with that mentality is that the world is not fair and nothing we can do will change that.
Joel: Unfortunately, you are right. We could continue to be an economic gorilla in the world, but this administration has caved to those who want "fairness" around the world. All one has to do is look at Zimbabwe to see where we're headed if things don't turn around. Mugabe turned the bread basket of Africa into a basket case.
I fear a far worse outcome. If our economy fails, so goes Europe, China and the Middle east. Now when economies get bad, people get angry and wars get started. Look at the global economic conditions preceding World War 1. Look at the economic conditions preceding World War 2. We had horrible economic conditions worldwide, and America was in the thick of things both times. Most historians say oh we were "neutral" before WW1 and WW2. I take issue with that because we sold arms to both sides before both wars. If you are supplying both sides to fight a war are you neutral or are you for both sides to fight it out. don't let those who rewrite history get away with doing so anymore. That is one of America's biggest problems. Comunists that run the education system are rewriting our history books and that must end now!!!!!
Joel: We definitely need an educational system that teaches, not indoctrinates. And we need to remind those in DC that IT ISN'T THEIR MONEY!!! We need Dutch!
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