6 thoughts on “Two Cheers For Obama”

  1. Good for Obama. The thing about congress influencing federal agencies to spend money on pet projects could get a lot of support in a TP congress. Is Obama just making threats or would he actually work with Republicans to implement reforms?

  2. This could turn into a game of, “what would you put on a federally funded mug or t-shirt?”

    “Pork! Its not just for dinner.”

  3. If only he thought of this before he got the new rug in the oval office. Oh wait, I see what he did…

  4. Leland, a certain amount of apparent extravagance in the White House (and similar places in other countries) is probably justifiable as a matter of image. IMHO, you ought to be directing your ire at the ludicrous comic-opera performance whenever the President goes anywhere.

    I very much doubt that the security for the UK’s PM (or for the Queen for that matter) is any less effective than that for the President of the USA. It’s just that it isn’t as obvious.

  5. Cutting useless bling like coffee mugs seems trivial until you look at the scope of the problem. There are hundreds of government agencies and departments. Just eliminating that one line item can save many million dollars a year. Admittedly, when the scope of the problem is in the trillions, cutting millions doesn’t sound like much. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile. You have to start cutting someone.

    The more significant cut is in travel expenses. When you factor in air travel, rental car, hotel and food (per diem), even a simple 3 day trip for one person can cost well over $1000. Multiply that by many people and many trips and the price tag can easily exceed a billion dollars a year. Teleconferencing for routine meetings is very cost and time effective. Eliminating useless conferences will save even more money.

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