Obama seeks power to merge agencies

[Geee]

Breitbart:


WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

It would be up to lawmakers, therefore, to first grant Obama this fast-track authority and then decide whether to approve any of his specific ideas.

Obama was expected to announce his plans Friday. The official confirmed the details to the AP on condition of anonymity ahead of the president's event.

In an election year and a political atmosphere of tighter spending, Obama's motivation is about improving a giant bureaucracy—but that's hardly all of it.

To voters sick of dysfunction, Obama wants to show some action on making Washington work better. Politically, his plan would allow him to do so by putting the onus on Congress and in particular his Republican critics in the House and Senate, to show why they would be against the pursuit of a leaner government.

Obama also has an imperative to deliver. He made a promise to come up with a smart reorganization of the government in his last State of the Union speech. That was nearly a year ago.

At the time, Obama grabbed attention by pointing out the absurdity of government inefficiency. In what he called his favorite example, Obama said: "The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they're in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they're in saltwater. And I hear it gets even more complicated once they're smoked."

The White House said the problem is serious for consumers who turn to their government for help and often do not know where to begin.

[clearvision]

What's the real plan?

[Valin]

What's the real plan?

 

Can't say...however...

In an election year and a political atmosphere of tighter spending, Obama's motivation is about improving a giant bureaucracy

I have some doubts that this is it.

[RandyM]

I have doubts, too.

 

To voters sick of dysfunction, Obama wants to show some action on making Washington work better.

 

Desperate measures by a desperate man.

[Geee]

If you merge a couple of angencies can you pick you own czar to run them?

[Casino67]

What's the real plan?

 

If Congress goes along with this, he runs as a reformer whose accomplishment was to shrink government and make it more efficient.

 

If Congress resists, he runs against a 'do nothing' Congress not allowing him to shrink government and make it more efficient.

 

Win win.

 

Accomplishes nothing while trying to look like he is trying to accomplish something. Politics as usual.

[Saltbag]

Reorganize means create as well as combine. He's leaning towards create.

[Valin]

WSJ: The Reorganization Man

Obama now says he wants to reform government.

 

The Washington rap on President Obama is that he's humorless, but that's unfair. He may not be Jay Leno funny, but his bit Friday on reforming and reducing government was great.

 

(Snip)

 

But let's go to the videotape. One measure of government size is the federal work force, measured by the White House budget office as civilian full-time equivalent employees, excluding the military and Post Office. The executive branch had about 1.875 million workers in 2008 when the financial crisis hit, a number that held relatively constant throughout the post-9/11 Bush Administration. That number climbed to 2.128 million two years later under the 111th Congress—or growth of 13.5%. That's the largest government since 1992, when the Clinton Administration began to slash defense spending.

 

(Snip)

 

This is a President who last year promised a review of all regulations while riding the greatest rule-making wave in American history. Now he's calling for leaner government without mentioning ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank, which create so many new boards and commissions that government auditors (literally) can't even count them. We suspect many in the White House were laughing themselves when they came up with this one.

[Valin]

Reorganize means create as well as combine. He's leaning towards create.

 

 

This obviously calls for a Dept. of Reorganization, headed by a Reorganization Czar.