Obama Seeks Power to Consolidate Federal Agencies
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Susan Walsh/AP Photo
ABC News’ Ann Compton (@AnnCompton) reports:
One year after first proposing consolidation of some overlapping government agencies, President Obama is finally ready to ask Congress for authority to take action.
White House officials say the request will be for what is called “authority to consolidate” some federal functions, starting in the trade area, including the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Small Business Administration, and three other export-related offices. The president is asking for powers he claims expired under the Reagan administration, which cut a significant amount of government bureaucracy in the 1980s.
In his State of the Union address to Congress in January 2011, President Obama drew chuckles and even some applause from the Congress when he cited what he called his favorite example of government overlap.
“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,” he declared to laughter in the House chamber. “I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked. ” To that the legislators broke into applause.
“We live and do business in the information age, but the last major reorganization of the government happened in the age of black-and-white TV. There are 12 different agencies that deal with exports. There are at least five different agencies that deal with housing policy,” President Obama stated then.
This new authority would allow Congress to vote up or down the entire package of consolidations within 90 days.
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Took him a year get around to ask, no wonder he is still working on creating jobs. 3 years and counting. Has to find out first if he missed some payoffs to fundraisers.
Posted by: Lizzie | January 13, 2012, 9:27 am 9:27 am
This is GREAT! Could it be he finally gets it? Or is it more campaigning?
Posted by: newcountryman | January 13, 2012, 9:36 am 9:36 am
Took him a year get around to ask
Posted by: Lizzie | January 13, 2012, 9:27 am 9:27 am
And the previous president – Bush – NEVER had the brains to ask. So what’s your point?
By the way, 2 miillion private sector jobs created in the past year and over 22 straight months of job growth, compared to 8 million lost due to the collapse under the previous president.
Posted by: Don | January 13, 2012, 9:39 am 9:39 am
As I drink my coffee this morning, I read this story and ask myself, “What will the right-whiners ‘whine’ about over this one?” ……. LOL!…. even when you do the things that most right-whiners supposedly would “cheer” (shrinking the government), they STILL will “whine”, guaranteed. You just can’t satisfy that crowd.
I used to work in Italy and had three Italian employees working in my office. When the Kosovo War was going on, we had protesters outside the gates, and I asked one of my Italian employees, “why do Italians protest so much?” One of them replied, “Believe me Sir, if the U.S. wasn’t in Kosovo, those same people would be outside protesting to ask why the U.S. isn’t there!”
Today’s Republi-C-R-E-T-_-Ns are no different …. “whine and cry” just for the sake of “whining and crying”. Well, more for the sake of their “PARTY FIRST, COUNTRY SECOND” mentality.
Posted by: Forrest Gump is DEFINITELY a Republican | January 13, 2012, 9:40 am 9:40 am
don wrote:”By the way, 2 miillion private sector jobs created in the past year and over 22 straight months of job growth, compared to 8 million lost due to the collapse under the previous president.”
.
You mean 2 million private sector jobs created in the past year since the Republicans controlled the House, compared to 8 million jobs lost due to the collapse when the Democrats controlled the House (and the Senate too).
Posted by: Melon Collie | January 13, 2012, 10:50 am 10:50 am
“By the way, 2 miillion private sector jobs created in the past year and over 22 straight months of job growth, compared to 8 million lost due to the collapse under the previous president.”
Posted by: Don | January 13, 2012, 9:39 am 9:39 am
If Obama’s job creation policies worked so wonderfully, why don’t you have a job?
Posted by: Dane | January 13, 2012, 11:00 am 11:00 am
Posted by: Melon Collie | January 13, 2012, 10:50 am 10:50 am
No actually I mean there have been 22 months of job growth under the Obama administration including 2 million jobs added in the past year, and there were 8 million jobs lost out of the economic collapse on Bush’s shift.
Posted by: Don | January 13, 2012, 11:09 am 11:09 am
The Obama Record
* Over the past 12 months, health care employment has grown by 299,000
* Employment in retail trade has increased by 228,000 since a recent low in December 2009
* Manufacturing has added 289,000 jobs since its most recent trough in December 2009, and durable goods manufacturing added 327,000 jobs during this period
* Employment in mining has increased by 140,000 since a recent low in October 2009
* Employment in professional and technical services continued to trend up in July. This industry has added 246,000 jobs since a recent low in March 2010.
All figures from Bureau of Labor Statistics (August 5, 2011)
And on top of that, there have been over 400,000 new private sector jobs created in the past 3 months.
Posted by: Don | January 13, 2012, 11:11 am 11:11 am
“By the way, 2 miillion private sector jobs created in the past year and over 22 straight months of job growth, compared to 8 million lost due to the collapse under the previous president.”
Posted by: Don | January 13, 2012, 9:39 am 9:39 am
If Obama’s job creation policies worked so wonderfully, why don’t you have a job?
Posted by: Dane | January 13, 2012, 11:00 am 11:00 am
This is the depth of right wing thinking? No wonder the Republicans screw up so badly whenever they are given any power. Scary.
Posted by: Jim | January 13, 2012, 11:14 am 11:14 am
This action by the President is exactly what is needed. I like the way he thinks – very practical and pragmatic.
Posted by: Ted | January 13, 2012, 11:18 am 11:18 am
Will it also give him the power to ADD government agencies with the same up or down vote?
Posted by: wheresmymoney | January 13, 2012, 11:22 am 11:22 am
Beware the man seeking more power, who wants to be a dictator!!!
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | January 13, 2012, 11:33 am 11:33 am
I’ll file this one in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” folder.
Posted by: newcountryman | January 13, 2012, 11:34 am 11:34 am
The President is rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. He is confusing busy work for progress. How many people does he plan to “fire” as a result of the improved efficiency?
Posted by: Common _ Sense | January 13, 2012, 11:39 am 11:39 am
Beware the man seeking more power, who wants to be a dictator!!!
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | January 13, 2012, 11:33 am 11:33 am
You mean like Reagan? President Reagan did the same thing. Of course his administration was also running an illegal shadow government carrying out illegal international activities . … .
Posted by: Jed | January 13, 2012, 11:45 am 11:45 am
He is confusing busy work for progress.
Posted by: Common _ Sense | January 13, 2012, 11:39 am 11:39 am
Sure he is . . .
The Obama Record
* Over the past 12 months, health care employment has grown by 299,000
* Employment in retail trade has increased by 228,000 since a recent low in December 2009
* Manufacturing has added 289,000 jobs since its most recent trough in December 2009, and durable goods manufacturing added 327,000 jobs during this period
* Employment in mining has increased by 140,000 since a recent low in October 2009
* Employment in professional and technical services continued to trend up in July. This industry has added 246,000 jobs since a recent low in March 2010.
All figures from Bureau of Labor Statistics (August 5, 2011)
And on top of that, there have been over 400,000 new private sector jobs created in the past 3 months.
Posted by: Don | January 13, 2012, 11:46 am 11:46 am
“How many people does he plan to “fire” as a result of the improved efficiency?”
A very good question, since you’re only really making progress if you’re firing people.
Posted by: mitt | January 13, 2012, 12:12 pm 12:12 pm
DON | JANUARY 13, 2012, 11:46 AM …..And how many military personnel does he plan on cutting?
Posted by: deanbob | January 13, 2012, 12:17 pm 12:17 pm
DON | JANUARY 13, 2012, 11:46 AM….
Don, give up man. It’s useless… Republi-C-R-E-T-_-N brains don’t process “facts” that impact our economy very well …. their brains prefer to process only shallow-minded simple concerns:
Examples:
“Where’s his birth certificate”
“Why does he use a teleprompter?”
LOL!
Posted by: Forrest Gump is DEFINITELY a Republican | January 13, 2012, 12:21 pm 12:21 pm
A GREAT step in the right direction. For those of you here STILL angry – SHUT UP!! President Obama could do EVERYTHING right and some of you would STILL be unhappy. He just gets better and better. OBAMA 2012!!!
Posted by: demNme5 | January 13, 2012, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm
“For those of you here STILL angry – SHUT UP!!”
Posted by: demNme5 | January 13, 2012, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm
Yeah! I hate the First Amendment too. I wish we could imprison the haters like they do in Cuba.
Posted by: Don | January 13, 2012, 12:44 pm 12:44 pm
Hey DON: You know I’m not trying to take away ANY of our rights. STill ticked-off that President Obama is DOING good things. I’ve figured it out (actually long ago) what is wrong with the right. (Other than almost EVERYTHING) The more that our President DOES that they have ALWAYS been WANTING (at least they SAY they want it, but like Health Care they NEVER really do anything about it), what bothers them most is the fact that things like this plan of Obama’s will take one more point of contention OFF their scream and yell list about what our President DOES NOT DO!!! In other words, it gives them so much LESS to say that he has NOT DONE!!! So my shut up is in reference to what I said earlier, NONE of you will EVER be satisfied so who gives a crap what YOU think!!!!
Posted by: demNme5 | January 13, 2012, 1:06 pm 1:06 pm
“In other words, it gives them so much LESS to say that he has NOT DONE!!! So my shut up is in reference to what I said earlier, NONE of you will EVER be satisfied so who gives a crap what YOU think!!!!”
Posted by: demNme5 | January 13, 2012, 1:06 pm 1:06 pm
A lot of us pay much more in taxes than you do, so what we think matters a great deal more than what you think.
Posted by: Susan | January 13, 2012, 2:08 pm 2:08 pm
ABC News: “One year after first proposing consolidation of some overlapping government agencies, President Obama is finally ready to ask Congress for authority to take action.”
What took so long? If their was waste to be cut and efficiencies to be made, why wait? The answer is he’s more concerned with the politics, as the announcement plays much better in an election year.
And, until the federal government starts spending less money as a whole, this supposed consolidation is just more smoke and mirrors.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 13, 2012, 3:09 pm 3:09 pm
A lot of us pay much more in taxes than you do, so what we think matters a great deal more than what you think.
Posted by: Susan | January 13, 2012, 2:08 pm 2:08 pm
Doubtful. Have you read the LA Times piece on Bain, Steel Dyamics and corporate welfare called “Mitt Romney no stranger to tax breaks, subsidies”
Posted by: Naomi | January 13, 2012, 4:01 pm 4:01 pm