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PrintObama taps spending watchdog, eyes Social Security
Wed Jan 7, 2009 3:18 AM EST
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WASHINGTON — Pointing with concern to "red ink as far as the eye can see," President-elect Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to tackle out-of-control Social Security and Medicare spending and named a special watchdog to clamp down on other federal programs — even as he campaigned anew to spend the largest pile of taxpayer money in history to revive the sinking economy.
The steepness of the fiscal mountain he'll face beginning Jan. 20 was underscored by stunning new figures: an estimate that the federal budget deficit will reach $1.2 trillion this year, by far the biggest ever, even without the new stimulus spending.
The incoming president has walked this same tightrope each day this week — advocating fiscal discipline and taxpayer largesse together at nearly every turn, though in every case with little detail to back it up. With less than two weeks to go before taking the helm at the White House, he'll make the same pitch on Thursday, delivering a speech laying out why he wants Congress to quickly pass his still-evolving economic plan.
Last year's U.S. deficit set its own record, but that $455 billion will be dwarfed by this year's. The new estimate, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, represents more than 8 percent of the entire national economy.
Still, Obama said "an economic situation that is dire" requires immediate and bold action with unprecedented tax cuts and federal programs. More bad news is expected Thursday and Friday on U.S. layoffs, and stocks plummeted anew on Wednesday, wiping out gains from the first week of the new year.
Obama gave his first ballpark estimate of the total amount of the stimulus package expected to emerge from negotiations between his team and Capitol Hill, saying it is likely to hover around $775 billion over two years. That's about $400 billion less than outside economists have said might be needed to jolt the economy but at the top of the range that Obama aides and congressional leaders have discussed publicly.
"We're going to have to jump-start this economy," Obama said. "That's going to cost some money."
The president-elect said concerns about increasing the deficit to unmanageable levels swayed him against the higher figures advocated by some.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also pressed for passage of a recovery bill, though the mid-February timeline she offered represented another slip in the date by which the package would be ready for Obama's signature. Initially, the goal was to have it finished by the time he takes office a week from next Tuesday.
Obama's repeated emphasis amid the stimulus talk on a need for spending control is aimed in part at attracting more support from deficit hawks in Congress.
He said Wednesday, without details, that his initial budget proposal next month will include "some very specific outlines" of how he plans to tackle spending. That extends to the ballooning and so-far unsolvable fiscal problem presented by the Social Security and Medicare programs, which Obama promised would be "a central part" of his deficit-reduction plan.
The stimulus package is expected to easily pass Congress, now controlled by solid Democratic majorities in both houses. But since it is the first major legislative test of an administration that promised to usher in a new era of bipartisan cooperation, and a measure of such enormous scope and import, Obama doesn't want to see it approved on a merely party-line vote.
On Wednesday, he made good on a campaign promise and introduced his choice for a new White House post he is creating: chief performance officer. Nancy Killefer, a professional efficiency expert, is charged with scouring the federal budget to eliminate programs that don't work and improve those that do. Obama called her appointment "among the most important that I will make."
"We committed to changing the way our government in Washington does business so that we're no longer squandering billions of tax dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of a lobbyist or an interest group," Obama said.
Killefer, the director of a management consulting firm and a former assistant treasury secretary will be Obama's hatchet woman, with power to recommend directly to him the slashing of programs and projects government-wide. She'll help agencies set performance standards and hold managers accountable.
But she also will run up against a long history of other chief executives' similar promises under different titles that have fallen short.
She said the bureaucracy's entrenched problems have taken decades to develop and will take time to fix. But she said it would be different this time. "I have seen it done," Killefer said at Obama's side.
Obama has to give Congress in early February a budget request — at least the bare bones of one — covering spending for the next fiscal year. Because that's so soon after he takes over the executive branch of government, his submission won't be anything like the usual one that fills several volumes and hundreds of pages.
Pelosi, speaking before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, offered her own assurance that the stimulus plan would be responsible and that Democrats are committed to long-term fiscal discipline.
Economist Martin Feldstein joined others talking to the congressional panel to endorse the need for a big short-term spending package. But he also warned against anything that could create a spending habit and swell the deficit even further. "There should be an exit strategy," he said.
For all the talk of belt-tightening, minority Republican leaders sounded only cautiously optimistic.
"We cannot borrow and spend our way back to prosperity when we're already running an annual deficit of more than one trillion dollars," House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said. "I was pleased to hear the president-elect say yesterday that we need to stop just talking about our national debt and actively confront it."
___
Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this story.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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- Jennifer Loven's Column, All of Newsvine
- Groups: singaporeans
- Regions: United States , Washington DC
 | US deficit 'to hit $1 trillion' | BBC News | Wed Jan 7 | 0 |
 | Obama names special watchdog for federal spending | Associated Press | Thu Jan 1 | 5 |
| Obama warns of dire consequences without stimulus | Associated Press | Thu Jan 8 | 186 |
| CBO projects $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009 | Associated Press | Wed Jan 7 | 28 |
| Analysis: Deficit spending is tough medicine | Associated Press | Wed Jan 7 | 1 |
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{"commentId":4696942,"authorDomain":"Profchaos"}
That is the funniest headline. except for that initial trillion dollars... we are going to spend less.
{"commentId":4696942,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"Profchaos"}
- 1 vote
#1 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 7:07 AM EST{"commentId":4697965,"authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
Profchaos,
That was the first thing I noticed too! Too funny. "We're going to spend 1 TRILLION dollars. But then we'll "restrain" ourselves.
Kind of like a person saying "I'm going to max out my credit cards, but then I won't charge any more to them."
{"commentId":4697965,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":4698338,"authorDomain":"billerxleben"}
Really.......and these people are supposed to "smart"? "We're going to solve the deficit problem by spending more..."
Perhaps they should try this one....closer to the truth....
"We're going to GIVE the Americans their tax dollars (that we don't have) back, so they (and their heirs) can owe it to us at a later date (sometime this century) so those nice greedy bastards at the Federal Reserve can collect interest on all that printed money (which, in the 1800's was payable in gold, not notes or paper) because we don't have the gonads (we like breathing) to tell the American people how they've been fleeced for the past 150 years and we the politicians, are the only one's who received any kind of benefit from this well-thought-out legislation. Works for us".
Reminds me of one of those famous quotes....."we had to destroy the village in order to save it"
{"commentId":4698338,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"billerxleben"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":4705913,"authorDomain":"newvistaschool"}
Does Pelosi even have a clue on what's going on in the United States?
{"commentId":4705913,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"newvistaschool"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":4697121,"authorDomain":"aoimiyazaki"}
Take a look at Asian countries such as Singapore, and perhaps Americans can understand how "saving a little" can turn into "saving a lot". If the debt clock can't remind mindless Americans aout the huge debts they incurred, perhaps this humility will teach them humility.
{"commentId":4697121,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"aoimiyazaki"}
- 1 vote
#2 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 7:38 AM EST{"commentId":4697177,"authorDomain":"aoimiyazaki"}
Correction: Perhaps this crisis will teach them humility. Sorry.
{"commentId":4697177,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"aoimiyazaki"}
#3 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 7:45 AM EST{"commentId":4698049,"authorDomain":"carlostoadvine"}
The trillion will be dispensed by politicians to create jobs but it wont be laden with pork, money dispensed by politicians to create jobs is the defination of pork. We are going to spend an extra trillion or so over the already bloated budget but we will restrain ourselves? I am missing something.
{"commentId":4698049,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"carlostoadvine"}
#4 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 9:23 AM EST{"commentId":4698445,"authorDomain":"wallen-1"}
It's a subtle difference, between a Keynesian-style investment in the country, and wasteful spending and budgetary graft, I think:
House Democrats this week plan to consider legislation that would require all federal agencies to undergo new audits and would call for congressional hearings when agency inspectors general find evidence of waste or fraud.
I read that and it brought to mind the old story about the military's $3000 toilet seats and $400 hammers, for example-- but I'm sure there are other examples throughout the inefficient, bureaucracy-driven government that could be used. The trick is to make the distinction between mismanagement and spending that promotes the stated mission of the department, in much the same way as non-profits, for example, are supposed to be held to exacting ethical and legal standards concerning their income and outgo...
It also appears to be about control: most of the discussion surrounding "pork" has to do with the lading of bills with line items that have nothing to do with the bill's original intent, and by setting up at the outset a clear "no pork" rubric for the project, any congressman who poisons the bill with additions runs the risk of being labelled an obstructionist and being perceived as working against the best interests of the American people.
{"commentId":4698445,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"wallen-1"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":4698452,"authorDomain":"frantran"}
I think I missed something too. I understand "you have to spend money to make money" but when applied to this I am scratching my head because for the government to make money they have to tax us. I don't believe I have ever seen a bill passed without pork and now they are going to pass bills without pork? MMMM right I will believe it when I see or read it. All of this and another clinton groupie appointed. Than there is pelosi saying something about being hard on the ones that are corrupt. I just don't know any more. I had a wait and see attitude but now I just don't know. I guess only time will tell. As always just my opinion.
{"commentId":4698452,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"frantran"}
{"commentId":4698877,"authorDomain":"carlostoadvine"}
Does anyone think that the public funds being meted out by politicians will be evenly distributed to people or contractors without the necessary political connections to qualify for the contract? If the congress is overseeing the spending as they must, can we trust them not to abuse their power for political gain? Around here (Illinois) the politicians make sure their family and friends get the biggest cut, either a government job or contract. I think if one looks at the number of connected people sliming their way around any government office at any level they wont need to look too hard to find a connection to somebody higher up. Can we seriously expect them to change now? To me this is the real test of change, should we expect reform or business as usual? This is a lot of money to hand over to people with a dismal record of doing the right thing.
{"commentId":4698877,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"carlostoadvine"}
{"commentId":4698174,"authorDomain":"tarabutler975"}
They should cut government spending (waste) deeply before they attempt to spend anymore of our tax dollars, and get the lobbyist out of D.C. If the lobbyist want to sell their wares let them lobby the American people with it, let us decide what projects we want to spend our money on.
{"commentId":4698174,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"tarabutler975"}
#5 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 9:33 AM EST{"commentId":4698181,"authorDomain":"insaccord"}
I feel like I am in this weird dream. Who is buying this? Has he promised the press billions of dollars. Uh, uh we need to shrink our budget, uh, uh right after I tack a trillion dollars on to it, to pay back all of the wonderful people that helped me get elected. This is total insanity, and I am especially pissed off at Bush for making it so easy for him, by starting the insanity. We need to have some sort of Boston Tea Party. Whether it is millions of people registering independent or millions refusing to pay taxes. We need term limits desperately, and if we can get an independent party supporting it and we actually support them, we may get the change we actually need.
We the people, somehow have to stop the madness.
{"commentId":4698181,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"insaccord"}
#6 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 9:34 AM EST{"commentId":4698769,"authorDomain":"billerxleben"}
Yo, LBF....
How's it going on the term-limits thing?
Millions marching madly might make mischevious men mend misguided morality.
Still like that 10 Million number.....
Tip O'neil said that all politics is local. We should look at the model of that well-thought-out group, ACORN, to get local (house representative) action, that can be organized nationally, with the same cause, which in this case (and all of them, actually) is ECONOMICS! The folks in DC need to be TOLD (not asked) that they can't spend anymore of MY MONEY! (or yours).
It ain't religion, abortion, gun control (not yet), gaza, iraq, afganistan, china, aids,.....IT'S MONEY!.....PERIOD!
{"commentId":4698769,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"billerxleben"}
{"commentId":4699114,"authorDomain":"insaccord"}
Not good Willy, the more I investigated, the more I realized, "We the People" are screwed.
{"commentId":4699114,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"insaccord"}
{"commentId":4698182,"authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
The trillion will be dispensed by politicians to create jobs but it wont be laden with pork, money dispensed by politicians to create jobs is the defination of pork. We are going to spend an extra trillion or so over the already bloated budget but we will restrain ourselves? I am missing something.
Nope, Carlos...you're not missing a thing. But Obama and team are hoping the people who voted for him will continue to miss alot. Including what you so eloquently stated above.
{"commentId":4698182,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
- 2 votes
#7 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 9:34 AM EST{"commentId":4698508,"authorDomain":"frantran"}
Can we please get off Bush. No body disagrees that he has made mistakes. For petes shakes he only has 2 weeks left. Let it go. As always just my opinion.
{"commentId":4698508,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"frantran"}
- 1 vote
#8 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 9:59 AM EST{"commentId":4698677,"authorDomain":"insaccord"}
Stockcar, I have been supporting Bush for years. I like the fact we are in Iraq, the mortgage crisis was not his fault, but the moronic bailouts have made it that much easier for Obama to spend our money and grow the inefficient, greedy and corrupt government. He was not fiscally responsible at the end and that pisses me off.
{"commentId":4698677,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"insaccord"}
{"commentId":4698959,"authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
The problem is people in this country think the president runs the whole show, political ignorance runs rampant in our nation, that's why we get stuck with what we have now. How about a test on government before people are allowed to vote?
{"commentId":4698959,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":4698982,"authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
Stockcar, I have been supporting Bush for years. I like the fact we are in Iraq, the mortgage crisis was not his fault, but the moronic bailouts have made it that much easier for Obama to spend our money and grow the inefficient, greedy and corrupt government. He was not fiscally responsible at the end and that pisses me off.
I agree. The bailouts left me stunned and were absolutely the wrong thing to do.
Obama is just as wrong for using the current economic woes to try and push through his socialistic financial agenda by lying to and instilling fear in the general public. His new mantra is that this is the 'worst economy since the great depression'. That's a flat out lie. One look at the Carter Administration will tell anyone that. Of course, a great deal of Obama's constituency was either an infant or not even a twinkle in their daddy's eye during the Carter Admin. Obama is toying with the very people that voted for him. Some 'public servant' he's turning out to be.
{"commentId":4698982,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":4698575,"authorDomain":"insaccord"}
You all are wrong, none of this will have pork. It may contain a little (okay maybe alot) of nguruwe, but no pork. So sit back and relax, everything will be okay. Obama and his pals are going to take good care of you. He is going to make everything better. The birds are chirping, the squirrels are wagging their bushy tails and there is a beautiful rainbow in the sky. So relax and have a good nights sleep.
Because when you wake up, the birds are going to be pecking your eyes out, the squirrels will have eaten your nuts and your savior Obama will have stolen the pot of gold, which has always been there for Americans to chase. No longer!
Nguruwe is Swahili for pork.
{"commentId":4698575,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"insaccord"}
#9 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 10:03 AM EST{"commentId":4698691,"authorDomain":"lindawallace"}
Yada! Yada! Yada! This mantra of fiscal responsibility is chanted by every incoming president, republican and democrat. Its not the president who makes these decisions but the congress and senate.
Many of the spending bills are never read and only the high points are presented to the citizens. But buried deeply inside the bill on pages 2005 - 3226 is the part that contains the pork.
Obama's motives are noble, but the reality of his motives being accomplished are thin at best.
Taxpayer funds are largely used by the politicans to assure their next election victory. Citizens really have no say in the matter.
{"commentId":4698691,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"lindawallace"}
- 1 vote
#10 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 10:09 AM EST{"commentId":4699016,"authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
Yada! Yada! Yada! This mantra of fiscal responsibility is chanted by every incoming president, republican and democrat. Its not the president who makes these decisions but the congress and senate.
Oh Goody! Pelosi and Reid! Gee. That makes me feel MUCH better.
{"commentId":4699016,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":4698766,"authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
Wasn't that idiot promising to make big government smaller? A car czar (and staff) now a spending watchdog! The last time I checked here job description matches that of the Government Accounting Office (GAO), I guess it was easier to add more employees to the government payroll in the form of staffers for the new "watchdog", than just give the GAO the investigative power they were supposed to have when the first started. I wonder if they'll need their own building to operate out of, rents not cheap in that area. I guess its only money. (ours)
{"commentId":4698766,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
- 1 vote
#11 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 10:15 AM EST{"commentId":4698875,"authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
Retiree-your right, we have no say in what our politicians do, that's the fundamental problem with what our government has become. This used to be a government of the people for the people now its "for myself and my friends", there are many Americans that can't open their mouth one bit to complain, this apparentlyis what the majority wants. Its the beginning of the fall of a once great nation (thank you liberals).
{"commentId":4698875,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
- 1 vote
#12 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 10:20 AM EST{"commentId":4699425,"authorDomain":"lindawallace"}
Right Jason! We are a republic which means we don't micro manage the government but rather entrust our votes and our desires to our elected representatives.
But try to get your senator on the phone. LOL!! They promise big time when running for office then get to D.C. and do what "they" think is best for us. IE the latest "bailout" fiasco. The American people said NO! The elected leaders said yes in enough number to override our desires.
Why do you think they have dumbed down the educational system. Thet really want an illiterate constituency so they can be the heroes and make all of the decisions.
Its no longer our country.
{"commentId":4699425,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"lindawallace"}
- 1 vote
#13 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 10:52 AM EST{"commentId":4700563,"authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
Is it my imagination...or did the title of this change?
{"commentId":4700563,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"panicklaus"}
#14 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 11:53 AM EST{"commentId":4700647,"authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
No, it did change.
{"commentId":4700647,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
- 1 vote
#15 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 11:58 AM EST{"commentId":4700769,"authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
Sneaky little ways to pass the blame for a increased national debt to someone else other than his Highness Obama. All people will remember and say when it fails is Pelosi really pushed for that second package and that's the one that sunk us for good. Obama gets away free of blame. Pat-N, it happens all the time in the media, remember when Obama said he had not spoken with the Ill. Gov. when the scandal broke, after the investigation came out it revealed that Obama in fact did speak to him and he had recommended Jesse Jackson Jr. it was in the news for one day then faded away. I honestly believe he could commit a murder on live t.v. and get away with it!
{"commentId":4700769,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"jasonp162"}
- 1 vote
#16 - Wed Jan 7, 2009 12:04 PM EST{"commentId":5221791,"authorDomain":"chipster36"}
In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are
willing to work and give to those who would not.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government
from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of
them.
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties
than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to
control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation,
the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive
the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the
continent their fathers conquered.
{"commentId":5221791,"threadId":"463074","contentId":"2282539","authorDomain":"chipster36"}
#17 - Fri Feb 6, 2009 3:02 PM EST{"canLink":false,"threadId":"463074","isPrivate":false}
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