Obama, McCain join forces on govt contract changes [targets defense contractors]

CNN - Political Ticker ^ | 2009-03-04 | Xuan Thai

[rabscuttle385]

WASHINGTON (CNN) – With former presidential rival Sen. John McCain and other congressional critics of government waste by his side, President Barack Obama changed another Bush-era policy Wednesday, announcing a plan to change how the government awards private sector contracts.

“It’s time for a government that only invests in what works,” Obama said when calling for new spending guidelines. “And what’s encouraging is that there is broad, bipartisan consensus on behalf of reform.”

Obama reserved special criticism for defense contractors, saying that the majority of the waste “comes from influence peddling and indefensible no-bid contracts that have cost American taxpayers billions of dollars in Iraq."

[rabscuttle385]

[rabscuttle385]

The Juan McCain Truth File. "I have great respect for Al Gore." —John McCain, October 2, 2008 FR Keywords: mccaintruthfile, mcqueeg, mcbama Please tag all relevant threads with the aforementioned keywords. This can be a very high-volume ping list at times. To join the ping list: FReepmail rabscuttle385 with the subject line add  mccaintruthfile. (Stop getting pings by sending the subject line drop mccaintruthfile.) Republican Commissar’s Warning: By joining this ping list, you may be subjected to the delusional rants and ramblings of McCainiacs, of "moderate" Republicans, of pragmatic conservatives resigned to voting for the lesser of two Democrats, and of countless GOP shills who simply want to meet a new overlord.

[Tarpon]

This is mind numbing and breathtaking to watch this ... The Acting President Obama is the biggest waste of money America has ever seen.

The butt boys are just doing their PRAVDA best to please.

[DBrow]

I’m going to apply for the position of deciding “what works”. Oh, that job is filled already?

[4Speed]

This is “cover” for BHO from the Iraq Halliburton contract days....You see...No one “paid Bho” to play. so BHO IS DOING A POWER GRAB of the Fed. purchasing machine.
Sure Haliburton still had the Blueprints from the Iraq Refinery that Halliburton originally BUILT....BUT Bush should not have Given the new contract to them.....That is not how Chicago politics does it.
Obama the Billionaire is now under construction.

[Venturer]

This is a back door attack on the military and there goes RINO McCain falling for it.

[RonnieFan]

Typical McCain. He got it half right. Fighting pork is one area where he's been a conservative BUT giving his weight in just one area (defense) without demanding that Obama first throw his weight behind McCain’s other anti-pork fights is stupid and counter-production. It gives Obama both a false appearance of bi-partisanship and being anti-pork when he is neither.

[bpjam]

Obambi is going to cut down waste on defense contracts....

by cutting down waste on defense contracts

[utdutt]

No doubt this will target Kellogg-Brown & Root, known simply as KBR, and a subsidiary of Halliburton. These guys are the best at going into dangerous places where there is nothing and carving out first rate support for our troops. Funny how during the Clinton Administration, when we were sending troops to Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Macedonia & Kosovo, KBR provided the support and no Liberals complained, but the moment Bush is in office and KBR follows the troops, the left makes KBR out to be the Devil! I for one am glad that my deployment days are behind me, I can't imagine what kind of support the “lowest bidder” will bring to our troops.

[oldbill]

These same clowns just put out nearly a TRILLION dollars in earmarks for “frisbee golf courses” and the like and now want to cut out “waste” in the military which has too few people, too old and too worn equipment, too few planes, too few ships, and too little Marine and Army equipment.

And McCain the RINO moron who has blocked appropriate military procurement for years, is right there at Obama’s side.

The Republican party is doomed as long as McCain and the people who put him at the top are still in charge.

[Gator113]

Mr. McCain, you may now kiss your bride.

[SandRat]

[Stegall Tx]

I heard a radio news report that claimed a 40 billion dollar savings in this plan. So, let’s see ... they’ve already signed $1.2 trillion into law so far and saving 40 billion each year.

So we can afford to leave this process in place for 30 years and still be money ahead if we just rescind the “stimulus” plans.

[Elsiejay]

I believe that no-bid contracting was authorized by the Congress, for good practical reasons, during or prior to the Clinton administration, and KBR (or Halliburton) was awarded such a contract during the Clinton era.