Rapid Fire Feb. 26, 2013: US Dept of Bridge Selling Sees No Govt Waste
- Republicans plan to introduce legislation today that would give the Administration discretion in how to implement sequestration, whereas the original Budget Control Act cuts indiscriminately across budget accounts. The executive branch says they are already pretty efficient so cuts, no matter where they’re done, will affect muscle and bone, not just fat. Senator Coburn [R-OK], who is drafting the legislation, says there is plenty of waste and low-priority projects that can be cut without affecting core governmental functions.
- In the meantime Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security is promising delayed port entry for container ships and long lines at customs for foreign travelers, an impressive synergy with the Department of Transportation’s planned furloughing of air controllers.
- If you are somehow tuning in only now on the sequester: 15 things you need to know about it.
- The center-left Brookings Institute is lining up proposals to make the federal budget, including its military component, more efficient. Here is their paper [PDF], authored by Cindy Williams (not that Cindy Williams) on how to make defense affordable. In short: start from genuinely vital national security interests, which leads to more restricted defense policy goals (i.e. not “policing the world”), translating into a smaller force structure. See also a video of a panel last Friday where Williams and former defense and budget officials discussed the paper.
