President Barack Obama with Sen. John McCain ( R-Ariz.), right, and Sen. Carl Levin ( D-Mich.), "partners'' in fighting runaway defense spending.( Photo by Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune )
by Mark Silva
Taking particular aim at overruns in defense spending, President Barack Obama today pledged to save up to $40 billion a year with a government-wide reform of federal purchasing.
The White House is backing legislation that Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) are advancing to reform defense spending. But the president also has ordered his own budget office to develop new rules by this fall on the way everyone in government does business.
""This problem cuts across the government, but I want to focus on one particular example, and that is the situation in defense contacting,'' the president said today at the White House in signing a memorandum ordering a government-wide review of contracting.
"The days of giving defense contractors a blank check are over,'' Obama said. "None of this will be easy. We'll have to end old ways of doing business. We'll have to take on entrenched special interests. We'll have to break bad habits that have built up over many years. But we can't keep spending good money after bad.''
Defense spending in particular, he said, is riddled with "lack of oversight... influence peddling and indefensible no-bid contracts that have cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.''
This is one area, the president suggested, in which bipartisan agreement should be possible, with Obama pledging to "partner'' with Sens. McCain and Levin to act quickly.
"Even if these were the best of times, budget reform would be long overdue in Washington,'' Obama said. "But these are far from the best of times.... As we get our economy moving we must also turn the tide on era of fiscal irresponsibility, so that we can sustain our recovery, enhance accountability and avoid leaving our children a mountain of debt. ''
The White House says government spending on contracting has more than doubled in eight years: Spending on goods and services increasing from $200 billion in 2000 to over $500 billion last year. Reforms in how government does business could save up to $40 billion each year, it says.
"It starts with reforming our broken system of government contracting,'' the president said.
"Far too often the spending is plagued by massive cost overruns, outright fraud, and the absence of oversight and accountability,'' Obama said. "In some cases contracts are awarded without competition. In others, contractors actually oversee other contractors. We are spending money on things that we don't need, and we are paying more than we need to pay, and that's completely unacceptable.''
Citing a Government Accountability Office report on 95 major defense projects last year that disclosed cost overruns totaling $295 billion, the president said: "This wasteful spending has many sources. It comes from investments in unproven technologies. It comes from lack of oversight. It comes from influence peddling and indefensible no-bid contracts that have cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.''
Obama's memo orders the administration "to dramatically reform the way we do business on contracts across the entire government.''
Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, is to oversee the development of new guidelines on contracting by Sept. 30, the end of a federal budget year in which the government is expected to run a $1.75-trillion annual deficit.
Next year, the president's proposed 2010 budget envisions a $1.17 trillion budget. the end of September. Obama has pledged to cut that in half by the end of his first term, with not only tax increases for the wealthiest Americans but also cuts in spending.
"We will stop outsourcing services that should be performed by the government and open up the contracting process to small businesses,'' Obama said today. "We will end unnecessary no-bid and cost-plus contracts that run up a bill that is paid by the American people.''
The president's memo directs the OMB to issue "government-wide guidance to assist agencies in reviewing, and creating processes for ongoing review of, existing contracts in order to identify contracts that are wasteful, inefficient, or not otherwise likely to meet the agency's needs'' by July 1.
And by Sept. 30, OMB is to issue guidance on "the appropriate use and oversight of sole-source and other types of noncompetitive contracts and to maximize the use of full and open competition... reviewing the capacity and ability of the federal acquisition workforce to develop, manage, and oversee acquisitions... and clarify when governmental outsourcing for services is and is not appropriate.''
Comments
This is good PR, because Obama needs to do something to create the perception of frugality and accountability in the midst of his massive spending.
http://www.political-buzz.com/
Posted by: matt | March 4, 2009 12:06 PM
The obvious question is, why would the federal government be frugal with defense contracting when its spending everywhere else is prodigal?
But in any case, I'd expect the real agenda to be:
Unions. What can I do to enrich and strenthen private-sector unions?
Unions: What can I do to extend the stranglehold that public-sector unions have over the delivery of government services.
Unions. Is there any more I can do for unions?
Posted by: Albigensian | March 4, 2009 12:42 PM
Is this pledge anything like his pledge of no earmarks? No lobbyists in his sadministration? No tax increases on the middle class? His pledge of bipartisanship (and not the showy, false bipartisanship that has been reality)?
Posted by: John D | March 4, 2009 1:00 PM
He pledged reform of "earmarks" a few days ago in his state of the union - and is now set to sign a spending bill with over 8,500 earmarks totaling billions of taxpayer dollars.
He pledged to close the revolving door and not hire lobbyist to work in his administration - and now has a deputy secretary at DOD in charge of procurement who was weeks ago a lobbyist for Raytheon.
He pledged to participate in the public financing system to ensure the long fought for reforms of McCain-Feingold weren't just dismissed for the politics that brought us Nixon and, in IL, Burris and Blago due to how ineffective his 'ethics reform' legislation he claimed to lead with bipartisan support when in the state house.
This administration and this president are quickly loosing any credibility on its hot air and rhetoric, despite the press standing by to cheerlead.
All PR - no substance - NO Change - Not the kind of leadership that we can believe in.
Posted by: Chris | March 4, 2009 1:16 PM
It's funny, but I didnt read anything between the lines (or on the lines) about accountability, perceived accountability or the unions. What I read was Affirmative Action quotas.
These contracts are so large, the percentage values set aside for Protected Class Enterprises (PCE's) drawf the bonding capacity of the Washington based PCE firms.
By reducing the value of overall contracts by sub-dividing the work, more beauracratic management is required and more PCE's can jump on the band wagon of Federal money.
So instead of redefing the rules of the process, the OA is making it more of a process with more rules. All in the name of progress!
Isn't our government great?
Posted by: ethan | March 4, 2009 1:46 PM
Hope we won't have electricians who wire things to plumbing that kills soldiers as happened with Bush. Will undocumented workers be flown into Iraq anymore? Bush brought Asian workers to Iraq to build the largest embassy in American history. Did Bush want cheap, stupid, or fearful and easily controlled workers at the time?
Posted by: Vivian | March 4, 2009 3:35 PM
Go back to his speechs during the campaign.
He said he would go after waste fraud and abuse in govt. spending.
So, what's the problem?
Posted by: ornery | March 4, 2009 4:48 PM
Obama reality--he's gonna sign the pork and earmarks laden $410 billion spending bill.
That's the reality, Obama fans.
So who cares about his nice words? Deeds speak louder than words.
Posted by: Inconvenient Truths | March 4, 2009 4:58 PM
There is no end to the hypocracy of angry John McCain. While he blames Obama for approving the omnibus bill with earmarks, it is a bill that was negotiated in December under the Bush adminstration. McCain fails to show a little anger with the three Republicans who are taking the largest amounts of earmarks for their states. Six of the 10 largest earmarks were added by Republicans. Although McCain has no earmarks in the bill, his fellow AZ senator is bringing the bacon home with his earmarks. Funny, we've heard nothing about that. Obama's stimulus bill has no earmarks. Bills from this point on will have no earmarks. So who is the hypocrite here, folks? This episode of grandstanding has been brought to you by John McCain.
Posted by: Carol A. | March 4, 2009 7:10 PM
Posted by: John D | March 4, 2009 1:00 PM
What about President Bush's pledge made in 2004 to cut the deficit in half by 2009?
Posted by: BC | March 4, 2009 8:20 PM
All you pugs that posted above are the scurge of this country. Obama and your hero mccain are working together to make the government smaller and more efficient and you are still not happy. You guys are one sick lot.
I hope O and the dems ram so much reform down your throats the next 16 years that you just start taking your medicine like good little sick children should.
Posted by: Xcellentform | March 4, 2009 9:25 PM
America needs to kill the MIC before it kills us. The MIC is not making us safer, or procuring weapons efficiently.
It's all insider greased sweetheart deals.
Does anyone out there believe we still need to employ the doctrine of 'the triad' to defend this nation?
Posted by: C.Morris✈ | March 4, 2009 9:52 PM
Where is the official definition of "earmark"?
For example, would renovation of the Adler Planetarium be an "earmark"?
Or would the fact that tens of thousands of school children learn something inside the place, mean it is something other than an "earmark"?
Oink me when you have the answer , Repiglicans.
Posted by: ornery | March 4, 2009 10:33 PM
Is it the CIA who leaked the Marine I jewels, because Barack is not going to overlook destroying 100 tapes of "interrogations"?*
Or is it the Pentagon, a shot across the bow, threatening him of payback for cutting their budget?
Not nice.
*But then Hitler wasn't nice when he had the conspirators in the bomb plot against him strung up with piano wire and had it filmed for his viewing pleasure.
Is this what Cheney & Bush did for jollies--a special screening of torture in their secure undisclosed locations?
Posted by: ornery | March 4, 2009 10:57 PM
I think we should consider all the waistful spending in the military. I am not talking about all the "Working Soldiers" who loose leg, arm, and hand overseas. I am talking about those military personnal that do nothing but party on tax payers dollars and never see a war. Those women who are sold into a type of sexual "legalized" slavery in the military (prostitution). No one wants to talk about that. Officers are making money of the backs of young girls. Waisteful spending. My point is that some people actually work and some don't . I guess this behavior is all over the country. When do we start thinking with our brain instead of the head on our D_ _ K. Do we realy want our courntry to succeed. We are suppose to be Christian or does that really mean any thing anymore. Has the all mighty dollar impaired our vision to do what is right.
Posted by: GodFirst | March 5, 2009 12:43 AM
Just one more example of Obama's PR smoke and mirrors while he pretends to strain at a gnat but swallows a camel.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspirator | March 5, 2009 1:40 PM
"Obama's stimulus bill has no earmarks." You've just exposed yourself as a weak-minded, easily manipulated sheep. Go out to graze on whatever dear leader tells you to. Reality clearly isn't something you're interested in or do the words "clean coal" mean anything to you?
Posted by: Jeff | March 5, 2009 4:16 PM
We don't have to use clean coal when we have all the energy that we need from the sun. If you can't read then you can watch videos about.
If the blood sucking "Fossil Fuel" sellers didn't buy up all the scientist who were studying "Solar Energy" we would not be using fossil fuels today. That includes Clean Coal, smarty.
The world and the all mighty dollar. We are just set to distroy ourselves, because we distroy others first. Not knowing that we are all tied in this together. When you bring one person down maliciously, you are really bring yourself down. We have to prey for the soldiers who are making it by the book and that the molester won't get in the way.
Posted by: GodFirst | March 8, 2009 10:48 PM
The world and the all mighty dollar. We are just set to DESTROY ourselves, because we DESTROY others first. Not knowing that we are all tied in this together. When you bring one person down maliciously, you are really bringing yourself down. We have to prey for the soldiers who are making it by the book and that the molester won't get in the way.
Posted by: GodFirst | March 8, 2009 10:54 PM
Speaking of “SHEEP”, when some people are “earmarked” without them knowing it and for no reason, as livestock, and they don’t want to graze their DEAR LEADERS, they are automatically put on the chopping block, drugged, mentally abused, and shipped to the ward in D.C. to be released. They are only released if they are “GOOD” by NOT TELLING!
Posted by: GodFirst | March 8, 2009 11:47 PM