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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Obama orders agencies to slash budgets
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 7:14 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:The White House is directing agencies to develop plans for trimming at least 5 percent from their budgets by identifying programs that do little to advance their missions or President Obama's agenda. The request, made amid rising public anxiety over government spending, comes on top of a pledge by Obama this winter to freeze spending at most agencies for the next three years. In a joint memo to be delivered Tuesday morning, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and budget director Peter Orszag order agency heads to go further by listing the programs that "are least critical" to their overall goals. Republicans have relentlessly hammered Obama and congressional Democrats for their roles in driving budget deficits to record levels with expensive stimulus spending. With voters increasingly alarmed about the run of red ink, and with midterm congressional elections approaching, the White House has stepped up efforts to blunt criticism. The new directive is the latest in a series of initiatives, legislative proposals and veto threats in recent weeks aimed at demonstrating that Obama is minding every penny. Previous administrations have asked agency heads to justify programs, but budget analysts said they could not recall a time when agencies had been ordered to volunteer programs for elimination. To encourage cooperation, Obama also will ask Congress for new authority to let agencies keep half the savings they identify, administration officials said. The agencies could then put the cash toward higher priorities rather than surrendering it all for deficit reduction, as is typical. 'Redundancy wastes resources' It is hard to say which programs are likely to attract the ax. Administration officials frequently refer to dozens of duplicative programs scattered across government. In a speech he is set to deliver Tuesday, Orszag will point to 110 programs dedicated to advancing science and math education, more than 100 to youth mentoring, and more than 40 to employment and job training. The approach is modeled on a Defense Department program, announced in early May by Secretary Robert M. Gates, aimed at encouraging the military and civilian bureaucracy to find $7 billion to help cover the cost of combat operations. Emanuel said similar programs have also been used successfully by state and local governments. Gates seems to be something of a budget-cutting inspiration for Obama. Less than two weeks ago, the president threatened to veto a defense authorization bill now working its way through Congress unless lawmakers canceled funding to develop an alternative engine for the F-35 warplane, which Gates has deemed unnecessary.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 7:18 AM
ANTHONYT
Freedom is Important because People are Important
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 7:35 AM
Quote:The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin Corp, its largest supplier, sought on Friday to shoot down criticism of their $299 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the costliest planned U.S. arms buy ever. Published reports that Russian-built Sukhoi fighter jets thrashed the F-35 in simulated dogfights last month are "just flat false," Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Davis, the Pentagon official in charge of the program, said in a teleconference hastily called by Lockheed to rebut negative publicity at a critical juncture for the program. Development of the family of radar-evading, multi-role, single engine F-35 fighters was co-financed by Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway. Each of these countries is within a couple of months to a couple of years of making F-35 procurement decisions, and some people with unspecified "agendas" may be maneuvering, Davis said. The West Australian newspaper reported earlier this month that F-35s had been "clubbed like baby seals" by simulated Sukhois at war games in Hawaii last month. Tom Burbage, general manager of the F-35 program for Lockheed Martin, said in the teleconference, "We've been able to put the issue in Australia to bed." He said Australia's prime minister had been among those troubled by the report. Davis and Burbage also took aim at a highly critical guest column in the Sept. 10 issue of Jane's Defence Weekly, a trade publication, by industry-watchers Winston Wheeler and Pierre Sprey, who helped shape Lockheed's F-16 fighter. Wheeler and Sprey tarred the F-35 as a "dog," calling it overweight, underpowered and, with a payload of only two 2,000-pound bombs in its bomb bay, "hardly a first-class bomber either." As a close-support attack aircraft, they wrote it is too fast to see the tactical targets it is shooting at; too delicate and flammable to withstand ground fire; and lacking the "endurance" to loiter usefully over friendly ground forces for sustained periods. In a rebuttal statement, Lockheed said the F-35 was a "racehorse, not a 'dog'," with unprecedented combat advantages, including the most powerful engine ever installed in a fighter. Davis and Burbage also took aim at a highly critical guest column in the Sept. 10 issue of Jane's Defence Weekly, a trade publication, by industry-watchers Winston Wheeler and Pierre Sprey, who helped shape Lockheed's F-16 fighter. Wheeler and Sprey tarred the F-35 as a "dog," calling it overweight, underpowered and, with a payload of only two 2,000-pound bombs in its bomb bay, "hardly a first-class bomber either." As a close-support attack aircraft, they wrote it is too fast to see the tactical targets it is shooting at; too delicate and flammable to withstand ground fire; and lacking the "endurance" to loiter usefully over friendly ground forces for sustained periods. In a rebuttal statement, Lockheed said the F-35 was a "racehorse, not a 'dog'," with unprecedented combat advantages, including the most powerful engine ever installed in a fighter.
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