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WP: Obama to Order 100 Million in Budget Cuts


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President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, and he will order its members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.

Although the budget cuts would amount to a minuscule portion of federal spending, they are intended to signal the president's determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042000641.html?hpid=topnews

A small step. However, everyone freaking out needs to take a breath and let this guy have time to operate. Entitlement reform is coming too.

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Does 8 zero's even register for anyone anymore?

I seem to remember it was Adlai Stevenson who said that the trouble with Washington is that it's a different world. You start talking about the budget, and you're spending 100 Million here, and 300 Million over there, and 700 Million over there, and before you know it, it adds up to big money.

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Lol. Every step counts. But seriously, how am I supposed to take 100 million dollars seriously at all?

It'll end up costing janitors and doughnut vendors jobs. OLS

Yeah it's not much, but I take it as a sign that Obama actually does understand that you can't just keep racking up debt without at least trying to cut spending in some places. When he can cut a billion from somewhere, then you're really talking.

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Lol. Every step counts. But seriously, how am I supposed to take 100 million dollars seriously at all?

It'll end up costing janitors and doughnut vendors jobs. OLS

If it helps, he's asking the CABINET to to cut 100 million. Its not legislation. He's literally saying you guys need to cut back on things that you don't need or use.

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If it helps, he's asking the CABINET to to cut 100 million. Its not legislation. He's literally saying you guys need to cut back on things that you don't need or use.

The extra roll of toilet paper at 3 in the afternoon?

Gotta downgrade to BIC pens.

How many cabinet agencies are there, 12? So we are talking about 8 million at each cabinet agency? That would be like the conference room chairs at DOD :)

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If it helps, he's asking the CABINET to to cut 100 million. Its not legislation. He's literally saying you guys need to cut back on things that you don't need or use.

while pushing for a multi trillion dollar healthcare and Green jobs plan.

seems like a petty move driven by a need to look frugal to the press.

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while pushing for a multi trillion dollar healthcare and Green jobs plan.

seems like a petty move driven by a need to look frugal to the press.

SS, I didn't know you were a cynic.

The extra roll of toilet paper at 3 in the afternoon?

Gotta downgrade to BIC pens.

How many cabinet agencies are there, 12? So we are talking about 8 million at each cabinet agency? That would be like the conference room chairs at DOD :)

Hey man, it helps. :) No more bagels in the conference room.

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You have to understand government speak for "cut" also. Not increasing spending as much as they had in the past is considered a "cut" by the government and media.

A person watching his weight doesn't "cut" calories by adding a diet coke to his super big cheesy burger deluxe combo meal with a side of grease.

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I'd like to preface this by saying I voted for Obama so nobody can say that I am a sour conservative, but this is not a step in the right direction.

I opened a lemonade stand, and my price is $1.00 for a cup of lemonade. But because I am not making enough money I have to raise it to $2.00. Then the next day I lower it to $1.99 and advertise a price cut.

Talk about frustrating, it just doesn't seem like there is any solution to our Governments problems. Aside from those in the circle of power, both sides of the political spectrum can see that at this point, it appears nobody has any ****ing clue what they are doing.

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$100 million?

From the Heritage foundation:

A recent audit revealed that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million. Even worse, the Pentagon never bothered to get a refund for these fully refundable tickets. The GAO blamed a system that relied on department personnel to notify the travel office when purchased tickets went unused.[3]

Auditors also found 27,000 transactions between 2001 and 2002 in which the Pentagon paid twice for the same ticket. The department would purchase the ticket directly and then inex*plicably reimburse the employee for the cost of the ticket. (In one case, an employee who allegedly made seven false claims for airline tickets professed not to have noticed that $9,700 was deposited into his/her account). These additional transactions cost taxpayers $8 million.

[3]U.S. General Accounting Office, DOD Travel Cards: Control Weaknesses Led to Millions of Dollars in Unused Airline Tickets, GAO–03–398, March 2004, at www.gao.gov/new.items/d04398.pdf.

Done. how about cutting some REAL money? You know, like cutting as much as he adds, like he said he would during the campaign?

It's real easy to increase budgets up front, and get to the cutting "later". How about figuring out where your cuts are going to be while you are planning the increases? That way, we don't get a year down the road and the Government say "we can't find any more places to cut".

ETA: And I didn't need 90 seconds to find this, let alone 90 days.

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Does 8 zero's even register for anyone anymore?

no,

1,000,000,000,000 = Trillion

100,000,000 = 100 Million

So in otherwords, they would need to find $100 Mill in savings over 10,000 times in order to equal the bailouts we have given out in the past year.

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I'd like to preface this by saying I voted for Obama so nobody can say that I am a sour conservative, but this is not a step in the right direction.

I opened a lemonade stand, and my price is $1.00 for a cup of lemonade. But because I am not making enough money I have to raise it to $2.00. Then the next day I lower it to $1.99 and advertise a price cut.

Talk about frustrating, it just doesn't seem like there is any solution to our Governments problems. Aside from those in the circle of power, both sides of the political spectrum can see that at this point, it appears nobody has any ****ing clue what they are doing.

I think what everyone's point was is that while this is 1 step forward, 2 steps back in terms of massive government spending, at least it's not just 2 steps back.

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What this really says is: if you work in the lower levels of these cabinet agencies, get ready for layoffs...

I think the world has reached a point of critical mass, between the growing population and the advance of technology that eliminates human effort, and the resulting strain on the "system" to economically support everybody, its a losing battle. The jobs will just continue to be harder to find and the world is headed into a flat spin.

I know, pessimistic. But hey, you gotta face reality sometime.

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