Obama vows to cut federal spending on contractors

ap ^ | 9/22/2008

[markomalley]

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama moved to claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility in a roiling economy, vowing on Monday to slash federal spending on contractors by 10 percent and saving $40 billion.

Urging members of his own party to be just as fiscally tough as the most conservative Republicans, Obama said the $700 billion economic bailout plan proposed by the Bush administration and congressional leaders is forcing a renewed look at federal spending.

As president, Obama said he would create a White House team headed by a chief performance officer to monitor the efficiency of government spending.

"I am not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every government program just because it's there," Obama said at a rally in Green Bay. "We will fire government managers who aren't getting results, we will cut funding for programs that are wasting your money and we will use technology and lessons from the private sector to improve efficiency across every level of government."

(SNIP)

"We are here because an ethic of irresponsibility has swept through our government, leaving politicians with the belief they can waste billions and billions of your money on no-bid contracts for friends and contributors, slip pork projects into bills during the dead of night and spend billions on corporate tax breaks we can't afford and old programs we don't need," said Obama.

(snip)

President Bush ran for office on a platform of efficiency in government, Obama said, noting that Bush instead has presided over a mushrooming federal budget and deficits. Under Bush, spending on contractors has more than doubled, from $203 billion in 2000 to $412 billion in 2006.

[markomalley]

So that's interesting. Let's see how this one will work:

- He is going to increase exponentially the amount of government programs

- He is going to cut contractors (which, unless programs are eliminated and not replaced with other, bigger, better, programs, means that he will have to hire additional government workers to replace contractors)

- He is going to fire inefficient government managers (yeah, right)

- He is not going to increase government spending.

That's a neat trick...

[stocksthatgoup]

Please Sen Obama spell out examples of the cuts you want to make!

[FlingWingFlyer]

Some goofy politician says this EVERY election season. They’ve been saying it for as long as I’ve been alive.

[manic4organic]

The only cuts he’ll make is in the military.

[rightwingextremist1776]

How much you wanna bet all the contractors come from the Military side of the house? just replace them with the Soldiers, Airmen, Marines and Sailors already on the books....it's a 2 fer.

[KevinDavis]

Guess where Obama will cut... Hint it is not going to be social programs..

[KoRn]

Why pay a contractor when you can pay a government employee union member. Right?

[robomatik]

"...we will use technology and lessons from the private sector to improve efficiency across every level of government."

what, exactly, does this buffoon know about the private sector?

[muawiyah]

"Contractors" ~ that would be folks who keep government computer systems running, automobile companies (who provide vehicles to the military and civilian agencies), office supply companies (who provide, paper, pencils, pens, erasers, wastebaskets, paperclips, etc.)

I doubt you can balance the budget by whacking contractors.

[Rodm]

Hey Stupid AP Propagandist: Yeah Right, just like Clinton
lied to the poor bums that he was going to give a middle
class tax cut and when he got in office he raised taxes.
If Obama got in office (God Forbid) the gravy
train will be a flowing to every Democrat con-man around
the country. It will make Freddie and Fannie look like
small potatoes.

[gov_bean_ counter]

IIRC this is almost verbatim what Gov Palin said in the Charlie Gibson interview. He relentlessly pressed her on just what programs aren't working and where these inefficiencies lie? I feel certain Charlie will subject Obie to the same intense line of questioning first chance he gets. /sarcasm off

[doc1019]

Every presidential candidate since Washington has made promises to get elected. Seldom do they make true on their campaign promises, therefore I ignore all “promises” and vote on their history and potential. Just me. ;-)

[fuente]

Since the government doesn’t actually make anything, exactly where will Barry go to get everything?

[Son House]

Al Gore may be offended being he already re-invented Government

[madison10]

So how is Obama going to get anything done?

[pallis]

Obama will cut military contractors right out of the picture.

[Wuli]

He wont's save a dime on this bait and switch.

He'll hire additional federal employees to do the jobs the
“contractors” are doing and by the time you add the federal bennies and job protections the $40 billion in “savings” will be replaced with $120 billion in new long term labor cost commitments.

[mabelkitty]

Well, we all know unions make up the majority of contractors, so this will be interesting to watch.

[KarlInOhio]

When I think of government contractor the first thing I think of is defense contractors. Cutting $40 billion from contractors is a fancy way of saying cutting $40 billion from defense.

[Carley]

He be goin’ to be puttin a lot of people out of work.