OBAMA ON THE HOOK

OBAMA ON THE HOOK

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

Published on DickMorris.com on March 29, 2011

With each of his policies, Obama takes a gamble.  If they work, he's OK.  If they don't, he's on the hook for the outcome.  Consider the extent of his exposure:

•    His involvement in Libya makes him responsible if Gaddafi stays in power and slaughters his own people and/or renews his connections with international terrorism. Obama will be equally responsible should Gaddafi be toppled and an Iraqi-style civil war erupts between his deposed supporters and the new government.  As General Powell said "you break it, you own it."

•    His support for the rebellion in Egypt and his action in forcing Mubarak from power makes him responsible should the Muslim Brotherhood take over the nation and use it as a basis for promoting terrorism and battling Israel, undoing the Camp David accords.

•    Obama's anti-oil drilling policies make him vulnerable should oil prices resume their upward march, particularly so if the Saudi monarchy is toppled and prices surge.  In that event, he will be subject to blame for encouraging the wave or revolutions on the one hand and neglecting our domestic energy resources on the other.

•    Attorney General Eric Holder's weakening of our domestic anti-terror efforts and his curbs on investigatory tactics make Obama responsible for any major terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

•    Should the economy enter a double dip recession, it will be Obama's recession.  No longer will the public blame Bush, but they will realize that it is Obama's policies which have led to disaster.

That's all a lot for a president to have on his plate.  But Obama keeps helping himself to more responsibility without clear exit strategies and with only a hope and a prayer standing between him and disaster.  He is now so dependent on the actions of other players -- Egyptian Muslims, Libyan rebels, Saudi insurgents, domestic terrorists, and global economic forces -- that he is no longer in control of his own destiny. 

He is now truly the hostage of events.  Not a good place for a president facing re-election to be.

from www.DickMorris.com 

Common Sense Commentary:

Obama, being devoid of real American ideas and ideals, won his election based on the cataclysmic failure of a foundational liberal system (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac forced sub-prime loan debacle) that he and liberals blamed George Bush for (see: Bush's Presidency - a quick response to a Liberal's Myths)

Now, "the hens are coming to roost", as his life long spiritual and ethical mentor quipped many times.

Without an effective foundational understanding of his responsibilities to America, or the American People, Obama drifts like a rudderless dingy in the currents and winds.

He still can win in 2012, because who knows what crimes liberal Democrats are willing to impose upon the American People. So, we have to fight hard for our nation.

But, the most important effort every America Patriot must pursue is to politely and patiently show their friends what reality is, as reality painfully sinks in to every Patriotic American other than the most extreme, hateful anti-American Liberal.

Our race is a marathon right now. Let's each of us pace ourselves for this, the greatest of America Marathons in our nation's recent history.

NO WAY OBAMA WINS IN 2012

NO WAY OBAMA WINS IN 2012

By DICK MORRIS

Published on TheHill.com on March 15, 2011
 

The combination of high oil and gasoline prices, rising food costs, higher health insurance premiums and the likelihood of future inflation has jarred consumer confidence, creating a major crisis for the Obama administration.

The collapse has been sudden and dramatic.

Terror Chatter High, Prepare Now with the Emergency Radio     

In December, the consumer confidence scale in the Rasmussen Poll stood at 81.7 percent. But in January, euphoria set in. Obama compromised on the George W. Bush tax cuts, the nation seemed to be coming together after the Giffords shooting and a Republican House sat poised to stop any new spending or social experimentation. On Jan. 11, the Rasmussen confidence index rose to 88.3.

Then reality dawned. Unemployment remained persistently high, economic growth was largely stagnant and partisan bickering resumed. The confidence level on Feb. 11 dropped to 84.5.

Then the bottom fell out. The daily Rasmussen polling reflected a drop day after day until, by March 11, the index had fallen to 73.1, its lowest level since it registered a 69 in July of 2009, in the depths of the recession.

The false dawn of January has faded and the hard, cold reality of a likely second recession is setting in. But this recession is accompanied by the likelihood of inflation, a stagflation syndrome that will probably grip America for years. And which will likely take a manmade recession, on the order of 1979-82, to counter it.

Will Obama get reelected? No way! In the teeth of the economic catastrophe that is shaping up, his chances are doomed.

The tsunami in Japan, perhaps the greatest tragedy since 9/11, will further impede any prospect for economic growth. There will be a demand for spending to repair the devastation of the quake. But Japan is tied with China as the world's second largest economy, generating 12 percent of the global GDP. With Japan neither producing nor buying for the foreseeable future, the drag on the global economy will be profound.

Worse, the Fed and the administration are out of tools to help. Interest rates are already at zero. Fiscal stimulus -- the deficit -- already consumes 40 percent of our total government outlays. The Fed is printing money at a ferocious rate under its qualitative easing (QE-2) program. What is left to do?

Only dramatic cuts in the federal deficit, a rollback of regulations that cripple small and community banks, a cancellation of future tax increase plans, a big reduction in federal spending, repeal of ObamaCare, freeing manufacturing from the prospect of carbon taxation and unleashing our domestic energy potential can solve our problems. But Obama is not about to undo his legacy of disaster for the American people.

And then there is the longer-term oil and gasoline crisis. Instability in the Middle East is going to mount, not recede. The chances of disruption in Saudi oil supplies and the possibility of an overthrow of the regime (triggered by the best efforts of Iran) will continue to force prices upward. The drag on the economy and the rising consumer discontent in the United States spell further problems for the Obama presidency.

As the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said -- outrageously and wrongly -- about 9/11, "the chickens are coming home to roost." The policies of this administration -- the disastrous overspending, the irresponsible borrowing, the social experimentation -- all are magnifying and amplifying the impact of the recession. Relief is not going to come anytime soon.

Instead, the true legacy of the Obama years is likely to be stagflation and an entire decade wiped out by his policies, budget and programs. Long after he is gone in 2013, we will still be repairing the damage of his terrible decisions.  

from www.DickMorris.com 

Common Sense Commentary:

Adding to Dick's analysis of Obama's political challenges, we have to add in the Electoral Vote and State challenges as well.  Obama won the presidency with 365 to 173 Electoral Votes (EV's) over John McCain.

Obama swept a number of kumbaya states that he will find impossible to sweep again. He was able to smooze and fool them last time, but they will not fall for his slick politicking this time. In fact, several of these states would now vote for Bush again, rather than Obama.

This includes Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, and New Hampshire and Nevada. Add to this the loss of a net of 6 Electoral Votes from the 2010 Census update, and Obama is now behind 266 to 272 EV's.

Adding to this the possible loss of a number of previous reliable Blue States, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Iowa and Obama has been seriously routed, losing 219 to 319.

Notice, we have not even looked at Colorado, New Mexico and he's down another 14 losing 205 to 333.

The 2012 POTUS Race is for the Republican candidate to lose, right now.  We will have to choose a candidate who is inspiring, grasps real world economics, and has the guts to rebuild America's weakened image abroad, while savvy enough to put out all the fires Obama has allowed to simmer into out of control blazes.  That prediction is for another day.

Blessings!

Blacks and Republicans

March 15, 2011

Blacks and Republicans

By Thomas Sowell

  Read: MLK was a Republican!

San Francisco's irrepressible former mayor, Willie Brown, was walking along one of the city's streets when he happened to run into another former city official that he knew, James McCray.

McCray's greeting to him was "You're 10."

"What are you talking about?" Willie Brown asked.

McCray replied: "I just walked from Civic Center to Third Street and you're only the 10th black person I've seen."

That is hardly surprising. The black population of San Francisco is less than half of what it was in 1970, and it fell another 19 percent in the past decade.

A few years ago, I had a similar experience in one of the other communities further down the San Francisco peninsula. As I was bicycling down the street, I saw a black man waiting at a bus stop. As I approached him, he said, "You're the first black man I have seen around here in months!"

"It will be months more before you see another one," I replied, and we both laughed.

Actually, it was no laughing matter. Blacks are being forced out of San Francisco, and out of other communities on the San Francisco peninsula, by high housing prices.

At one time, housing prices in San Francisco were much like housing prices elsewhere in the country.

But the building restrictions-- and outright bans-- resulting from the political crusades of environmentalist zealots sent housing prices skyrocketing in San Francisco, San Jose and most of the communities in between. Housing prices in these communities soared to about three times the national average.

The black population in three adjacent counties on the San Francisco peninsula is just under 3 percent of the total population in the 39 communities in those counties.

It so happens that these are counties where the voters and the officials they elect are virtually all liberal Democrats. You might be hard pressed to find similarly one-sided conservative Republican communities where blacks are such small percentages of the population.

Certainly that would be hard to find in states with a substantial total population of blacks. In California, a substantial black population has simply been forced by economics to vacate many communities near the coast and move farther inland, where the environmental zealots are not yet as strong politically, and where housing prices are therefore not yet as unaffordable.

With all the Republican politicians' laments about how overwhelmingly blacks vote for Democrats, I have yet to hear a Republican politician publicly point out the harm to blacks from such policies of the Democrats as severe housing restrictions, resulting from catering to environmental extremists.

If the Republicans did point out such things as building restrictions that make it hard for most blacks to afford housing, even in places where they once lived, they would have the Democrats at a complete disadvantage.

It would be impossible for the Democrats to deny the facts, not only in coastal California but in similar affluent strongholds of liberal Democrats around the country. Moreover, environmental zealots are such an important part of the Democrats' constituencies that Democratic politicians could not change their policies.

Although Republicans would have a strong case, none of that matters when they don't make the case in the first place. The same is true of the effects of minimum wage laws on the high rate of unemployment among black youths. Again, the facts are undeniable, and the Democrats cannot change their policy, because they are beholden to labor unions that advocate higher minimum wages.

Yet another area in which Democrats are boxed in politically is their making job protection for members of teachers' unions more important than improving education for students in the public schools. No one loses more from this policy than blacks, for many of whom education is their only chance for economic advancement.

But none of this matters so long as Republicans who want the black vote think they have to devise earmarked benefits for blacks, instead of explaining how Republicans' general principles, applied to all Americans, can do more for blacks than the Democrats' welfare state approach.

Copyright 2011, Creators Syndicate Inc.

www.Realclearpolitics.com

Common Sense Commentary:

The truth is Republicans also need to thread the needle with minorities.  

Republicans have always earnestly supported equal rights for blacks and minorities, while advocating limited government and free markets.  

But, where Republicans run in to trouble is when they condemn injurious programs, their language also attacks program recipients.  When this happens, the value and truth of the argument is lost in the pain of the injury. 

We saw this recently when Harry Reid was being hammered by Tea Partier Sharron Angle and was going to lose his Senate race, Angle then self-destructed her own race from attacks against all Hispanics in regards to the Illegal Immigration problem.

Of course, she lost the key Hispanic Vote, as do many Republicans, and because Hispanics are the predominant Union members, they were very easily manipulated by Reid and his corrupt Union bosses.

Had Angle been more pointed and attacked the corrupt Democrat Party efforts of forcing good people to break the law and creating a shadow citizenry, which is entirely against everything America and Republicanism stands for, and for which only the Democratic Party benefits, Angle might have easily won that race.

Americans are a very fair and honest people. And, Republican Political language often condemns the victims, and not the corrupt and failed big government programs. Thus, we lose the battle on the issue, and we lose the people who will benefit most from fixing the corrupt Democrat programs. 

What to do?

1     Attack the problem and its specific issues

2     Attack the liberal Democrats that create
       impossible problems for honest citizens

3     Accept that often "abusers" are also
       victims of government dysfunction

In Angle's case, 61% of Hispanics may be against Illegal Immigration, but 100% are against being grouped and attacked because of their race. Let's remember this.   

Now, on to 2012 to Reclaim America!

Blessings!

Liberals are opportunistic LIARS!

Liberals are opportunistic LIARS!

Robert Reich is a typical liberal.  Anything goes as long as it’s for something he wants.  Read his hypocrisy in regards to public use of "Reconciliation" measures and to his cries of “foul” over a perfectly legal and appropriate maneuver in rescinding Wisconsin’s Public Union’s authority to collective bargaining: 

Dr. Jekyl Reich:

Governor Scott Walker and his Wisconsin senate Republicans have laid bare the motives for their coup d'etat.... The American public may be divided over many things but we stand united behind our democratic process and the rule of law. And we reject coups in whatever form they occur.

Then, there's Mr. Hyde Reich:

Monday, Feb 22, 2010 10:23 ET

"Do it with 51 votes"
The 60-vote requirement for healthcare is made up.
51 is a majority, and it's all we need 
 By Robert Reich

1. Reconciliation is too extreme a measure to use on a piece of legislation
    so important.
    I hear this a lot but it’s bunk (highlights for emphasis)


2. Use of reconciliation would infuriate Senate Republicans. It may.
    So what?

My free advice to the President: If you want to get healthcare enacted you must use reconciliation and quickly.

Common Sense Commentary:

In truth, Reconciliation was completely inappropriate for Congress to directly confiscate and operate 17% of America’s free market GDP.  This "Reconciliation" specifically, by definition, involved extra-ordinary amounts and percentages of American Budget Funding.  Thus it was anti-thesis to everything the Reconciliation process was designed for.

Wisconsin's bureaucratic actions were taken exactly for the reasons those laws were made. To modify/resolve an existing bureaucratic issue.  There are no Collective Bargaining conferences on the table at this time. There are no planned Collective Bargaining Negotiations planned. This was strictly a Bureaucratic maneuver managing potential future events.

Like all liberals, Reich is a fraud, blowing in the wind whenever it suits his personal desires and with no respect for the Rule of Law, or for the Rights of Majorities in our Republic.  We see this hypocrisy in everything liberals "stand for".  That is, if being perniciously opportunistic is equivalent to "standing for principles".

Democrats, and therefore liberals, by their own definition from the party's nascent days in the 1800's and even back to the early 1700's were always focused on the political philosophy of Special Interests. This is based on the idea that only some people are equal, and others do not merit equality, rights, a voice, or protections.

The Democratic Party originated as a pro-slavery Special Interest party, and in fact they started the Civil War to expand their progressive special interest philosophies. Democrats created Jim Crow, the KKK, expanded both despite 100 years of Federal Republican efforts to create total equality throughout the American Society.  

Woodrow Wilson expanded Federal protections of Jim Crow and created Federal Employee Segregation.  FDR also greatly protected Jim Crow, while extending, and expanding Federal laws prohibiting the hiring of blacks.

Both John F Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson voted against the Equal Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, both supported Jim Crow for political opportunistic reasons, and both tried to undermine Martin Luther King, Jr, who was a life-time Republican.

Such is the depth of Liberal concerns for equality, equal rights under the law, and equal opportunity.

More on this in a few weeks in my blog series (below)

What Happened to America and Its Constitution?

 Blessings!

UNION DEATH THREATS to Wis. GOP Senators

Common Sense Commentary

This Patriot wonders if Chris Tingles, or MadDog Maddow, or President "I'm Tolerant" Obama will have any comments on this given their over the top attacks on Conservative "Hate" when we simply oppose their POLICIES?

 

 ‘YOU WILL DIE!!!!’: 

Shocking E-Mail Sent to Wis. GOP Senators

• Posted by Asst Natl Dir Mellie B on March 10, 2011 at 11:42am in Patriot Action Alerts
• View Discussions

• Posted on March 10, 2011 at 11:21am by Jonathon M. Seidl

The following is a shocking, scary e-mail sent to Wisconsin GOP senators last night at around 9:30 pm, shortly after the Senate passed an anti-union bill. Not only does the e-mail threaten the senators with death, but it also vows “your familes [sic] will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks.”
Local station WTMJ in Milwaukee obtained the e-mail, and has redacted the sender’s name pending an investigation by the police (emphasis added):



From: XXXX
Sent: Wed 3/9/2011 9:18 PM

To: Sen.Kapanke; Sen.Darling; Sen.Cowles; Sen.Ellis; Sen.Fitzgerald; Sen.Galloway; Sen.Grothman; Sen.Harsdorf; Sen.Hopper; Sen.Kedzie; Sen.Lasee; Sen.Lazich; Sen.Leibham; Sen.Moulton; Sen.Olsen
Subject: Atten: Death threat!!!! Bomb!!!!


Please put your things in order because you will be 
killed and your familes will also be killed due to your 
actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that
this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it
will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to
close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have 
a good time in hell. Read below for more information 
on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions
today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people
that are working with me have decided that we’ve had enough.
We feel that you and the people that support the dictator have to die.
We have tried many other ways of dealing with your corruption but
you have taken things too far and we will not stand for it any longer.
So, this is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many others know
where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records.

We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a
nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn’t leave
it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the
message to you since you are so “high” on Koch and have decided that you are
now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a
demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have 
placed in various locations around the areas in which we know 
that you frequent.

This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and
well I won’t tell you all of them because that’s just no fun.
Since we know that you are not smart enough to figure out
why this is happening to you we have decided to make it
perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it’s
necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin
their lives, making them unable to feed, clothe, and provide
the necessities to their families and themselves then
We Will “get rid of” (in which I mean kill) you. Please
understand that this does not include the heroic Rep.
Senator that risked everything to go aganist what you and
your goonies wanted him to do. We feel that it’s worth our
lives to do this, because we would be saving the lives of
300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon
as possible and say goodbye to your loved ones we will
not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!


      WTMJ confirmed police are investigation several
      death threats, including the e-mail above.

     Wisconsin GOP senators were told toe flee the
     Capitol almost immediately after their vote because
      police told them “it was not safe.”


     http://www.theblaze.com/stories/you-will-die-read-the-shocking-e-ma...

This article was from

www.PatriotActionNetwork.com

Dick Morris - This is Obama's true legacy.

OBAMA'S LEGACY: STAGFLATION

By DICK MORRIS

Published on TheHill.com on March 1, 2011

Obama's failure to support America's allies in the Middle East and his dithering endorsement of chaos in the region will send oil and gasoline prices skyrocketing, triggering a massive bout of stagflation. This vicious cycle of rising prices, decreased consumption, and ever higher prices (as vendors seek to recover higher fixed costs) will cripple the American economy for years to come.


This is Obama's true legacy.

Consider what he has done to push up oil and gas prices: • Endorsed spreading chaos in the Middle East. • First banned and now slowed down offshore oil drilling. • Considered curbs on fracking (horizontal drilling to unlock shale deposits in the Northeast -- a potent new source of oil). • Imposed a carbon tax on domestically produced coal and oil through EPA mandate. • Proposed an end to tax advantages designed to encourage oil drilling and exploration.

Now Obama is reaping the fruits of these misguided policies -- $4-per-gallon gas, soon to go up to $5 or $6!

Get your NObama 2012 Plan!

And the fuel-price increases will take their place alongside food-price rises. Food prices for corn, soybeans, wheat and other basic crops have almost doubled in the past year.

(The Consumer Price Index deliberately understates fuel and food inflation in its formula to avoid triggering cost-of-living adjustment increases in private pay and government programs.)

Finally, he has encouraged the Federal Reserve Board 
to almost triple the money supply, over $1 trillion of it based on the purchase of worthless mortgage-backed securities.

The combination of reduced confidence in the dollar (at home and abroad) and the rises in fuel and food prices will force up prices as costs push them higher. Already, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pressed for the replacement of the dollar as an international currency by "drawing rights" printed by the IMF. Such a policy, of course, would be a disaster since it would attempt to base global currency on an institution without the power to tax. But it is a measure of how far faith in the dollar has fallen that it is being seriously urged. U.S. inflation can only fan that movement.

Since the Fed has got to stop printing money soon -- lest it become wallpaper -- interest rates, too, will rise, also contributing to the cost push price inflation.

But the economy cannot afford to pay these higher prices. Consumer demand, which accounts for three-quarters of GDP, is already stagnant. With inflation, it will drop. Then, unable to recoup their costs, vendors will be forced to raise prices even higher. An inflationary psychology will take hold of the economy. Higher interest rates will be needed to break its hold, forcing us into yet another recession, this one fully courtesy of President Obama.

For months now, political pundits have wondered if the economy would improve, helping Obama's reelection chances. It now appears that the exact opposite is likely and that his reelection chances will be washed away by a massive flood of inflation as a consequence of his misguided policies.

Obama will doubtless blame oil companies and speculators for the fuel price increases, but his role in encouraging instability in the oil-producing regions of the Middle East is apparent enough. He put the demand of the Egyptian people for political change ahead of America's need for financial stability. He was so enraptured by being "on the right side of history" that he forgot about his role as the head of our economy and its vulnerability to the very instability his policies fanned.

Read all of Dick Morris's brilliant insights at DickMorris.com!

Does Obama Want $8 Gasoline?

 Posted 02/25/2011 06:30 PM ET

Gas is going through the roof in prices not seen since 2008. This 76 station reflects Feb. 24 gas costs in Irvine, Calif. View Enlarged Image

Energy Policy: While we sit on abundant oil and natural gas reserves, prices at both the wellhead and the pump are rising on fears of spreading Mideast turmoil and short domestic supply. But then, maybe that's the plan.

The silver lining for this administration in the gathering storm over the Middle East may be what it's doing and may yet do to energy prices. The average price for gasoline jumped nearly 12 cents a gallon last week to $3.287, according to AAA. But at the White House, that's not necessarily bad news.

Oil has surged to 2 1/2-year highs as the chaos in Libya chokes that nation's exports. Yet among the "full range of options" the Obama administration is considering as the Libyan crisis festers, and the lit match of discontent gets perilously close to Saudi oilfields, ordering the full resumption of domestic oil and gas production is not one of them. Why?

Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said that "any disruption in the Middle East means a partial disruption in the oil we import. It's a world market, and (a disruption can) have real harm on the price." And so, we would think, would the orchestrated and carefully planned disruption of domestic supply by this administration.
It's not just Mideast turmoil that has brought us to this point. It's also a deliberate program of restricting domestic energy to make so-called green energy more attractive and necessary, keeping an Obama campaign promise that energy prices would "necessarily skyrocket" on his energy agenda.

Before he was appointed energy secretary, Chu expressed a fondness for high European gas prices as a means of reducing consumption of fossil fuels. In September 2008, he told the Wall Street Journal: "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." Gas prices in Europe then averaged about $8 a gallon.

 JUST OUT! Support "NObama in 2012"!

 
Certainly every administration energy decision has had the effect of raising energy prices. The Deepwater Horizon disaster gave the administration the excuse for a drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, one that a federal judge overturned. When the administration reinstated the ban, it was found in contempt of court.

A virtual regulatory ban continues today. At least 103 drilling permits await approval by a federal government that has not approved a single new permit since the moratorium was allegedly lifted last October.

The administration has announced that the eastern Gulf and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts will be off-limits for the next seven years. The Interior Department has canceled four pending lease sales in Alaska.

Drilling in that state's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is prohibited, and oil-rich offshore areas have been designated as critical polar bear habitat despite a booming bear population.

The administration's hostility to fossil fuels is documented. Immediately on taking office, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah. Recently, in a stunning land grab, Salazar issued an order allowing Bureau of Land Management officials to place land with "wilderness characteristics" off-limits to energy development. Some 6 million acres in energy-rich Utah would be affected.

The day before President Obama was inaugurated, the average price of a gallon of gas was $1.83, the Heritage Foundation notes. Today it's well over $3 and on the way to $4. Prices for this February and last December were the highest ever for those months.

John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil, told Platt's Energy Week Television that Americans could be paying $5 for a gallon of gasoline by 2012 based on the uncertainty of world events, the lack of domestic supply and increased worldwide demand fueled by countries like India and China.

Democrats once accused Big Oil of deliberately restricting supply to enrich itself. Now the Obama administration may be doing the same on purpose — a policy sure to impoverish us all.

From 

Investors Business Daily

Government Waste By the Numbers: Report Identifies Dozens of Overlapping Programs

Published March 01, 2011 | FoxNews.com

 

The federal government hosts 47 job-training programs, 44 of which overlap. It runs 80 programs for the "transportation disadvantaged."

Another 82 programs spread across 10 separate agencies endeavor to improve teacher quality -- something hundreds of local school districts are already focused on.

These are just a few of the findings in a blockbuster report on government waste and inefficiencies released by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. The report identifies billions of dollars in potential savings if Congress just had the will to streamline initiatives that target politically popular causes.

 

 Though lawmakers in both parties have long struggled to eliminate the common culprits of waste, fraud and abuse, they seized on the findings Tuesday. House Republican Leader Eric Cantor vowed to "get our fiscal house in order" in light of the report.

 
AVAILABLE TODAY! 
For ~ ~ NObama 2012!!! ~ ~

"Now again, we have said enough is enough. Our Congress is about delivering results," Cantor said.
 "This report confirms what most Americans assume about their government. We are spending trillions of dollars every year and nobody knows what we are doing. The executive branch doesn't know. The congressional branch doesn't know. Nobody knows," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said in a statement Tuesday morning. "This report also shows we could save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars every year without cutting services."

The well-timed release comes as Republicans and Democrats fight over how much to cut from the rest of this year's budget, not to mention next year's $3.73 trillion spending plan. Democrats have so far balked at GOP plans to cut $61 billion from the 2010 fiscal year budget. But while both parties are squabbling over a relatively small slice of the budget pie -- discretionary spending -- the GAO report suggests Congress could keep cutting and leave the operation of government intact.

"Reducing or eliminating duplication, overlap or fragmentation could potentially save billions of taxpayer dollars annually and help agencies provide more efficient and effective services," the report said.

The study found 33 areas with "overlap and fragmentation" in the federal government. Among them, it found:

-- Fifty-six programs across 20 agencies dealing with financial literacy.

-- More than 2,100 data centers -- up from 432 a little more than a decade ago -- across 24 federal agencies. GAO estimated the government could save up to $200 billion over the next decade by consolidating them.

-- Twenty programs across seven agencies dealing with homelessness. The report found $2.9 billion spent on the programs in 2009. "Congress is often to blame" for fragmentation, GAO wrote in this section, explaining that the duplicative programs in multiple agencies cause access problems for potential participants.

-- Eighty-two "distinct" teacher-quality programs across 10 agencies. Many of them have "duplicate sub-goals," GAO said. Nine of them address teacher quality in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

-- Fifteen agencies administering 30 food-related laws. "Some of the oversight doesn't make any sense," the report stated bluntly.

-- Eighty economic development programs.

In some cases, the programs in question struggled to account for what they did. Take, for instance, domestic food assistance initiatives. According to GAO, 18 such programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services -- with GAO estimating $62.5 billion spent on them.

But "little is known about the effectiveness" of 11 of those programs, the report states.

Similarly, of the 47 job-training programs run out of the federal government, only five could provide an "impact study" since 2004 looking at "outcomes." About half of them provided no performance review at all since 2004.
The report quickly became a political football Tuesday for lawmakers arguing over proposed cuts.

"Given the size and scope of the problem, there is likely much more duplication and fragmentation left to find," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said the report offered an opportunity to make "smart cuts, instead of reckless cuts."

"Today's GAO report shows us a path forward to responsibly, effectively reduce the deficit without slashing investment in our economy, cutting private sector job growth, or endangering the most vulnerable members of our society. We must eliminate outdated and unnecessary programs, as I have proposed before and as the GAO suggests here," she said.

The lengthy GAO report was mandated by Congress the last time it raised the debt limit in January 2010. Coburn said the report makes lawmakers look like "jackasses."

"We don't know what we're doing," Coburn said.

The Defense Department takes a number of hits in the report. The GAO found many instances of duplication in the sprawling agency. The use of "urgent need" funds have been expanded, GAO found, with "multiple places for a warfighter to submit" such requests.

GAO found that the Pentagon has "no tracking mechanism" for these funds, resulting in an estimated $77 billion spent since 2005 on communication and computer technologies, counter-measures for improvised explosive devices and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tools.

Congress asked GAO to look specifically at "federal programs, agencies, offices and initiatives with duplicative goals and activities, to estimate the cost of such duplication and to make recommendations to Congress for consolidation and elimination of such duplication."

Fox News' Trish Turner contributed to this report.

URL

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/01/government-waste-numbers-report-identifies-dozens-duplicative-programs/