The Democrat Opposition To Totalitarian Communism Begins!

I hope this is real and not just a political ploy. The spending is out of control and must be managed.

The Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democratic leaders are working hard to suppress dissent within their party over boosting agency spending by 8 percent as the government runs whopping deficits and constituents are forced to scrimp on their own budgets.

Coming to the rescue are a few Republicans standing ready to help pass the pending $410 billion catchall spending bill - and allow lawmakers in both parties to get the thousands of pet projects they crave and above-inflation budget increases for favorite programs like education.

A close vote is expected late this week to advance the sweeping spending bill, which wraps together the budgets for 12 Cabinet departments and other agencies, to President Barack Obama. The White House promises to sign it despite unhappiness over the 8,000 or so homestate pet projects it contains.

Democrats and their allies control 58 seats in the Senate, but 60 votes will be needed to close debate and free the measure for Obama's desk.

A few Democrats are voicing opposition to the bill, however, unhappy with its cost and changes to U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Most significantly, Democrats Evan Bayh of Indiana and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin announced Wednesday that they will vote against the bill. Both urged Obama to veto it.

"There's just a disconnect between what people are having to go through in their daily lives - tightening their belts, economizing where they can - and what they see the government is doing," Bayh said in an interview. "I just think it's tone deaf and, substantively, we do need to get the deficit under control."

Democratic leaders scrambled to hold onto other Democrats, even as some GOP leaders conceded the bill is going to pick up GOP votes that would prove critical to its passage.

"I just don't know whether we have enough votes to stop it," said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the No. 3 GOP leader in the Senate.

The measure contains budget increases, on average, of 8 percent for the domestic agencies it covers, far more than they received under the Bush administration. But moderates such as Bayh are unhappy with the additional spending, especially after many agencies received huge infusions of money under the just-enacted economic recovery bill.

At the same time, Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Bill Nelson of Florida are weighing whether to oppose the legislation over a provision buried in it that would moderate rules on travel to Cuba and would make it easier for Cuba to pay for imports of food and medicine.

Democratic leaders hope to clear the bill - it passed the House last week - to meet a Friday deadline. That's when a stopgap funding law that keeps the government going, mostly at 2008 levels, runs out.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is also trying to keep the bill free of floor amendments that would force the measure into negotiations with the House that would delay enactment or kill the measure altogether.

But that means Democrats will have to cast some politically difficult votes. One of the most uncomfortable was expected Wednesday afternoon on an amendment by Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to kill 13 so-called "earmarks" requested by lawmakers for projects sought by PMA Group, a lobbying company at the center of a federal corruption investigation.

The PMA Group, which recently folded, had a reputation for funneling campaign money to lawmakers that obtained earmarks for its clients and is under investigation by the Justice Department over whether the company reimbursed some employees for campaign contributions to members of Congress who requested the projects.

On Cuba, Menendez is upset by a provision that would restore travel rules permitting people to visit relatives in Cuba once every 12 months. President George W. Bush imposed rules in 2004 that limited travel to just two weeks every three years and confined visits to immediate family members.

The omnibus bill also would lift restrictions on financing imports of U.S. food and medicine into Cuba and effectively reverse Bush administration rules requiring "cash-in-advance" payment.

"If the omnibus bill is signed by the president as is, he will be extending a hand while the Castro regime maintains its iron-handed clenched fist," Menendez said Monday.

More on this dissent including Democrat Senator Russ Feingold's opposition to mortgaging America's future.

Hypocrite-In-Chief Bokonon Obama: "The Days Of Giving Government Contractors A Blank Check Are Over"

"All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies."

--from the "Books of Bokonon", "Bokononism" is the fictional religion practiced by many of the characters in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle. It is based on living by the untruths that make one happy.

What the hell is President Bokonon Obama talking about this time?!?!?!

Upon taking office, the Obama Administration inherited a fiscal disaster: a budget deficit of $1.3 trillion. This burden is compounded by the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. As we get our economy moving again through the Recovery Act, it’s also important that we turn the page on an era of irresponsibility in which taxpayer dollars were used to line contractors’ pockets or maintain projects that do not work. To that end, the President today signed a Presidential Memorandum that reforms how the government does business and that will save taxpayers billions of dollars each year.
--White House memo issued this morning.

This guy kills me! He just says one thing and does another! Are we really supposed to take "fiscal responsibility" advice from Obama?

That's like taking marital fidelity advice from Bill Clinton!

Fox News reports:

WASHINGTON -- President Obama approved an order Wednesday to overhaul the way the U.S. government awards contracts for work to be done by the private sector, reversing a Bush administration policy.

Obama joined Republican Sen. John McCain, his presidential campaign rival, and other congressional figures to announce an executive memorandum that commits his administration to a new set of marching orders for awarding contracts. Obama said "the days of giving government contractors a blank check are over" and said changes could save up to $40 billion a year.

One area in particular that is targeted is no-bid contracts, which the administration is seeking to change so that there will be more competition for government-paid work.

"Even if these were the best of times, budget reform would be overdue in Washington," Obama said.

Obama's presidential memo changes government contracting procedures. It directs Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to work with Cabinet and agency officials to draft new contracting rules by the end of September. Those new rules, White House aides say, will make it more difficult for contractors to bilk taxpayers and make some half-trillion dollars in federal contracts each year more accessible to independent contractors.

Obama said the package of reforms could save up to $40 billion each year. "We will stop outsourcing services that should be performed by
the government and open up the contracting process to small businesses," he said. "We will end unnecessary no-bid and cost-plus contracts that run up a bill that is paid by the American people. And we will strengthen oversight to maximize transparency and accountability."

Obama Hypocrisy 2.0: President Pledges Decrease in Deficit — After Increase

How many times is the Hypocrite-in-Chief going to get away with the lies and deceit?

He says one thing and does another. Rush Limbaugh pointed out on his radio show today that all Obama has to do is say it and it will be believed by the Obamamaniacs.

Anything he says will be reported on by the MSM as fact, and then he will do the exact opposite and do whatever he wants anyway. The soundbites on the "news" will be accepted as fact by the Obama faithful and the misinformed.

By claiming he will reduce the deficit to $500 billion in four years, he allows himself the freedom and flexibility to spend as much as he wants for the next three years. He will run up the deficit and spend, spend and spend on socialist programs that establish Liberal Totalitarianism. He will then use his last year's "fiscal restraint" as a campaign tactic in 2012 to claim what a great fiscal disciplinarian he is.

It's a joke and a lie. He is arrogant, radical, dishonest and dangerous.


Newsmax reports:

WASHINGTON – Urging strict future restraint even as current spending soars, President Barack Obama pledged on Monday to dramatically slash the skyrocketing annual budget deficit as he started to dole out the record $787 billion economic stimulus package he signed last week.

"If we confront this crisis without also confronting the deficits that helped cause it, we risk sinking into another crisis down the road," the president warned, promising to cut the yearly deficit in half by the end of his four-year term. "We cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences."

He said he would reinstitute a pay-as-you-go rule that calls for spending reductions to match increases and would shun what he said were the past few years' "casual dishonesty of hiding irresponsible spending with clever accounting tricks." He called the long-term solvency of Social Security "the single most pressing fiscal challenge we face by far" and said reforming health care, including burgeoning entitlement programs, was a huge priority.

Wall Street seemed unimpressed by all the talk. The Dow Jones industrials dropped 251 points for the day.

Obama's Fiscal Goals Hinge on Rosy Scenarios

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's ambitious goal of cutting the federal deficit in half relies on a perfect — some might say improbable — convergence of factors: a recovered economy, a tax boost for the rich and success in easing foreign entanglements.

In calling for a deficit of about $530 billion in four years, Obama has established a marker by which to measure his first-term performance as president. The dollar figure could be his albatross or his badge of success.

"This will not be easy," Obama said Monday as he kicked off a fiscal summit at the White House. "It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we've long neglected."