Close The House Gymnasium
Close The House Gymnasium
Close The House Gymnasium
Barack Obama The President The White House Dear Mr. President: First, a gentle reminder, you do not have $60M to give to the Syrian rebels to help their cause. Given the state of our federal deficit, you will need to borrow the $60M from China. Although the American people are pretty generous, I am certain that if you polled them they would not support borrowing from China to help fund the Syrian rebels. One suggestion, ask the Chinese to support the Syrian rebels directly and cutout the middleman (us!). Now, on to the real reason for this letter. It is obvious to most Americans (at least those not associated with our federal government) that the cost cutting measures that you, Harry and John have been screaming about are completely irresponsible at this point. The initial round of cost cutting should involve substantially reducing the overhead and waste of the federal government not reducing programs and services that directly touch the American people. Next we should consider strategically reducing the footprint and activities of the federal government and increasing revenue (not the kind of revenue you are thinking). Keeping these general rules in mind, here are a number of straight-forward suggestions. Once again, I believe if you polled the American people they would wholeheartedly support these suggestions. Close The House Gymnasium Permanently close the house gymnasium and ask all the members of congress and staffers to locate a private gym and purchase their own membership. In addition to reducing the unknown level of expense associated with this outrageous perk, this action will have the additional positive benefit of boosting the private economy in Washington, DC. I realize this will have limited financial impact on the federal deficit, but perhaps it would generate enough savings to allow Janet to retain a few additional TSA screeners. Reduce White House Overhead Reduce the size of the White House staff and cancel all State Dinners until the budget is balanced. Begin staff reductions by eliminating the position of Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President. This is a new position and appears to be redundant considering the existence of the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors. Cant you and Joe share economic advisors? If you need help identifying positions for elimination please send me an organization chart and the written job descriptions of all personnel in the White House. My wife and I will give you our recommendations for reducing unnecessary staff overhead within two weeks. Oh, one more item, please stop spending taxpayer money on committees that you intend to ignore anyway. It appears that Simpson-Bowles did a nice job of suggesting how to reign-in federal spending and also raise tax revenue but the recommendations have been largely ignored. If you are not going to use the recommendations of committees, please save the money and stop appointing new committees.
Just think, if you managed to reduce the budget of the White House by 30% we could probably keep a few National Parks open with the savings you generated. Hey, it isnt much, but you know the saying, A million here, a million there, and before long you are talking real money! Reduce Congressional Overhead Permanently eliminate the extra pay for majority and minority leaders of both chambers of congress. These positions are oriented toward conducting the business of political parties and have little to do with conducting the work of the people. Eliminate these costs. Reduce congressional staff and committee staff by 10%. The private economy has undergone significant upheaval in the last five years. From the outside it appears that our federal government has been generally unaffected and is in need of internal restructuring and streamlining. South Korea Almost 60 years after the end of the Korean War (sorry, police action) we are still providing military assistance for South Korea. In case you havent noticed, in the last 60 years the South Korean economy has improved dramatically and now based on GDP ranks approximately 15th in the world. If our military is still needed to provide protection against North Korea then perhaps we should totally eliminate the cost sharing contract with South Korea and ask that we be reimbursed 100% for our services. Asking for 100% reimbursement for our services could save U.S. taxpayers several hundred million dollars annually and would allow us to continue the employment of a few thousand school teachers. NATO It is time for the U.S. to significantly reduce both our share of funding and our personnel contributions to the NATO alliance. The U.S. currently provides over 20% of the total funding for NATO and an equally outof-proportion contribution in direct personnel. In addition, only five of the NATO allies spend 2% of GDP on defense as required by NATO guidelines. The best argument for significantly reducing U.S. contributions to NATO came from Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense, The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress and in the American body politic writ large to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense. The dwindling appetite and patience of the American people has finally arrived and it is past time to significantly reduce our support of NATO. Money we save by reducing our NATO contributions could be used to continue the employment of a few thousand first responders in many of our major cities. Close Unnecessary Embassies/Consulates/Missions Close 20-30% of our embassies/consulates/missions around the world. Do we really need an embassy in Athens, Greece and a consulate in Thessaloniki, Greece? The question is, does it serve the American people to borrow money from China to maintain these facilities around the world?
Reduce Pay For Executive Branch and Congress Reduce pay by 50% for President, Vice President, Cabinet Officers, and all Senators and Representatives until the federal government is returned to a balanced budget. This is a simple pay for performance recommendation and recognizes the performance of our federal leadership has been below expectation. Reduce Duplication The March, 2011 report from the GAO, Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Tax Revenue, indicates that there are tens of billions of dollars of savings available by running a more efficient government. The report said, reducing or eliminating duplication, overlap, or fragmentation could potentially save billions of taxpayer dollars annually and help agencies provide more efficient and effective services. This report was issued in March, 2011, have these recommendations been implemented by the executive branch and congress? Oh, by the way, you should probably have a chat with Arnie about the Pinocchios he earned for stretching the truth about the number of teachers that will be laid off due to the sequester. It does not set a very good example for our school children when the Secretary of Education lies so brazenly. As you can see, these are simple and straightforward recommendations that could save tens of billions of dollars on an annual basis by reducing the fat and waste from the federal government. These savings could be realized before we take on the task of changing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Sincerely Yours,
Cc: Representative Randy Hultgren Cc: Senator Mark Kirk Cc: Senator Rand Paul
Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.
Alternative Proxies: