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Monday, February 12, 2007
Elusive Major Savings Document Finally Released
President Bush often speaks about not spending federal dollars on programs that do not get results. In fact, in his State of the Union speeches in 2005 and 2006, he referred to a list of programs he was proposing to be reduced or eliminated because they did not produce results. And each year, on Friday after the budget was released, the Office of Management and Budget released a huge document detailing each of those programs the president wanted reduced or eliminated - just in time not to make it into papers or the public's consciousness.
Well, this administration is nothing if not consistent. Late on Friday, the same document "Major Savings and Reforms in the President's 2008 Budget" was released to little fan fare (although the always feisty GovExec.com did release a good summary).
The list of programs compiled by OMB is of little value other than using it to chastise the administration for attempting to use their biased PART mechanism to justify canceling programs they have long disliked. As we have noted, in past years, only one-third of the president's hit list of programs were even reviewed by the PART to begin with. While the administration has now reviewed pretty much every federal program with the PART, my guess is the list this year is much the same as it was in the previous two years. Just like I said - they are nothing if not consistent.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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