Obama to propose combining agencies to shrink federal government

[Lasher]

Source: Washington Post

President Obama asked Congress on Friday for the power to consolidate parts of the federal government, proposing a first step of merging several trade- and commerce-related agencies under a plan that the White House said could eliminate more than 1,000 jobs and save $3 billion over 10 years.

Obama said he wanted to get rid of myriad duplications and inefficiencies — including having five different entities involved in housing, and more than a dozen agencies that regulate food safety.

“No business or non-profit leader would allow this kind of duplication or unnecessary complexity in their operations,” Obama said in a late-morning White House appearance before small businesses leaders. “. . .So why is it OK in our government? It’s not. It has to change.”

The White House proposal is Obama’s follow-through on his promise during last year’s State of the Union address to create a leaner, more efficient bureaucracy. But the move also comes at a politically opportune moment, as the president heads into his re-election campaign and aims to blunt Republican criticism that his policies have stunted business growth and bloated the federal budget at a time of ballooning debt.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-propose-combining-agencies-to-shrink-federal-government/2012/01/13/gIQAHsLqvP_story.html?hpid=z1

[dtexdem]

1. Good, what will he combine the Pentagon with?

;-)

[Lasher]

3. That's good for a laugh.

But seriously, maybe the DoE, or at least the part of it that maintains nukes, should be combined with the Pentagon. Maybe the VA too. The reason I say this is, the government is using this sort of dispersion to make it seem we are paying less for wars than we really are.

[No Elephants]

4. *cough* Homeland Security.*cough*

[No Elephants]

2. There's the Post Office layoffs, too. And yes, the timing is great for Obama, but not so

great for people getting laid off in an economy where jobs are hard to find.


On the other hand, if federal government is going to keep serving primarily big business, as opposed to the consumers it was designed to protect from big business, cut it to the frickin' bone. If I ever decide that I want to help Monsanto ruin plants in the entire Western half of the planet, I can always make a voluntary donation.

I just wish they could do it by attrition, rather than by lay offs, especially in this economy.

Well, I guess Rick Perry is happy about this, anyway. (Wasn't he the one who wanted to eliminate the Commerce Department, among others?)

[Lorien]

5. Always worrying about what repugs think of him, so he enacts their policies

to "prove them wrong". George Lakoff was right; when you move toward the opposition's positions it sends the message that you believe that they are correct and that you are embarrassed of being left of center (which Obama isn't). Eliminating jobs isn't what the Nation needs right now. Ending the wars and putting people to work on green energy and a National high speed rail system IS what we need!

[Lasher]

6. Even worse, he truly believes in much of their ideology.

I was shocked when I finally realized he is another damned neoliberal.