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Scouring the Budget
SCOURING THE BUDGET....Barack Obama rolled out his economic team today: Tim Geithner at Treasury, Christina Romer to head up the CEA, Larry Summers to head the White House Economic Council, and Melody Barnes as chair of his domestic policy council. Ben Bernanke, of course, is already in place as Fed chief. But what about Peter Orszag? Why wasn't he up on stage with the rest of them? Ben Smith provides a clue:
Obama's staff won't elaborate, but the President-Elect said just now that he'd roll out a plan to cut the federal budget tomorrow — something both presidential candidates said they'd do, but neither detailed.
"[T]o make the investments we need, we'll have to scour our federal budget, line-by-line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices as well — something I'll be discussing further tomorrow," Obama said.
I'm not sure why Obama wants to have a whole separate rollout for this — maybe he just wants more than one day's worth of headlines? — but obviously Orszag will be the star of that particular show. Via Taegan Goddard.
Someone needs to get President-elect Obama's ear and tell him we need to get out of Afghanistan...if not he is going to end up in the Big Muddy!
Beats me how they are going to get anything out of the FY09 budget. Barring the defense budget, everything else went on continuing resolution. So we are working at last year's rates.
Cut the budget? Are they nuts? Great idea during an economic meltdown/recession.
They're not going to cut any of the top-line numbers for a couple of years. But what they should be thinking about now is changing the trajectory of spending in various categories so they're better positioned to deal with the need for bringing the structural budget back toward balance after a few years of big stimulus programs. Frex, one of Orzag's hobbyhorses is that we have to start reforming health care now so it won't create a fiscal crisis later. We also need to reverse the trajectory of our totally out-of-control defense acquistion programs. Together health care and defense make up more than 2/3 of total spending so putting them on a different path is essential for the future.
As for tomorrow's announcement, I assume that Bill Richardson at Commerce will be the high profile political unveiling. That way he does't get lost in the Geithner/Summers publicity today.
they could cut the agricultural support program and the AMD in the blink of an eye, although i suspect nadezhda is probably more on target.
anonymous, they are not "cutting the budget;" they are, in fact, vastly increasing the budget deficit, by hundreds of billions. in that context, this is a great time to kill pointless programs such as the ones i noted in the first 'graf; the net impact will still be stimulative.
The AP is just reporting that everyone in the House and the President elect will take a %30 pay cut as a sign of commitment towards fiscal responsibility.
Getting out of Iraq helps (though AFAIK that's all funded by funny-money supplementals which bypass the official "budget" number). But I believe and hope that the rest of the massive Pentagon budget gets severely pruned.
I continue to be impressed with the adult mature behavior of the Obama - soon to be - Administration.
MORE !!!
please
"...it`s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine..." - REM
nadezhda has it right.
Now is not the time to cut spending anywhere, although it's entirely reasonable to be picky about what spending should be increased for a stimulus.
Just a guess, but Rachel Maddow says every time he makes an economic policy or staffing announcement, the market goes UP so he may want to spread the "wealth" by doing one a day!
Never mind the line by line going over the existing Budget-Start with the Military Budget and cancelling Cheney's Defense Contracts and bring them home immediately. 200,000 contractors for 150,000 troops seems a bit excessive especially when most of the things they build are below spec.'s or unfeasible to start with-I personally loved the nonfunctioning Waterworks!
Then close down our base in Okinawa and use the Marines there to replace the National Guard and put them on Border Patrol here. That would save 232,000 contractors and troops cost right there. The Contractors could fulfill their contracts by actual rebuilding the infrastructure of the U.S.-although they may not like the U.S. Construction Inspectors-they enforce building codes!