What the president will be announcing today:
President Barack Obama will ask Congress on Friday for greater power to shrink the federal government, and his first idea is merging six sprawling trade and commerce agencies whose overlapping programs can be baffling to businesses, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. Obama will call on Congress to give him a type of reorganizational power last held by a president when Ronald Reagan was in office. The Obama version would be a so-called consolidation authority allowing him to propose mergers that promise to save money and help consumers. The deal would entitle him to an up-or-down vote from Congress in 90 days.
ABC News’s Ann Compton notes: ”At 11 a.m. President Obama will ask Congress for authority to consolidate some federal bureaucracy (Note- it’s a pledge he made LAST JANUARY).”
Ed Henry adds, “The president made the promise in last year’s State of Union to consolidate government; aides have met for months, and will focus on overlapping commerce/trade agencies.”
Obama often used the slogan “the fierce urgency of now”; in 2011, he used the slogan, “We Can’t Wait.”
The fierce urgency of whenever.
Well of course it's the fierce urgency of whenever.
Those ncaa brackets aren't going to fill themselves out, are they?
Those Alice in Wonderland parties aren't going to get thrown by themselves, are they?
And would you have golf courses across the land go ungraced by the Wizard of Uhs?
Priorities, man. Come on.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRight. The president should give everything equal priority (i.e., "this must be done immediately!"), including the reorganization of massive federal bureaucracies.
This is more than a little baffling. Either Geraghty and the Republicans in Congress *agree* with Obama that this type of process takes some time to organize and complete, or they don't. If they agree, then this is an appropriate, necessary exercise in prioritization.
If not, where in the world have they been on this issue? If this is an issue that *they* think should have been done faster, where have they been arguing for it? Why haven't they given Obama the authority already, months ago?
Of course, it all makes perfect sense if your job or hobby is to criticize Obama for everything he does, whether you agree with it or not (or whether you've even given the slightest thought to whether you should agree or not).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseVonnegut,
Remember when Obama, in the 2008 campaign, said he was going to go through the Federal budget line by line to find programs that could be eliminated if they were not performing or not needed?
Maybe Obama finally finished reading the budget and this is what he came up with.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is a step in the right direction and Republicns should support it regardless of politics.
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