Yes, Mr. President, You Can Cut Spending

Kathryn Nix / June 08, 2010

Today, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and budget director Peter Orszag released a joint memo asking government agencies to create lists of ineffective programs with the intention of enacting future budget cuts of 5 percent.

This initiative follows in the footsteps of proposed legislation that would give the president greater power to cut spending by requiring Congress to vote on line-item spending rescissions requested by the president.  To have a significant impact on federal deficits, larger steps will need to be taken, but both ideas take small steps towards making Washington more efficient. (more…)