By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
President Obama's budget will call for more than $25 billion in specific spending cuts, the White House budget office said Tuesday, a day ahead of the blueprint's release.
The White House budget office Thursday told agencies to try to use as much flexibility as they can to blunt the effects of the budget sequesters that took effect last month.
The White House budget office has told federal agencies to slow down new hiring, curtail travel and conferences, and to stop doling out bonuses unless absolutely required to by law, according to a new memo released late Wednesday.
With the automatic cuts looming March 1, the Obama administration is offering more specifics on what lower spending would mean, pointing to everything from fewer agents on the U.S.-Mexico border to cutting funding for special education in school districts around the country.
The White House on Sunday stepped up pressure on Republicans to adopt a short-term budget patch that would cancel the $85 billion in spending "sequesters" due on March 1, saying that government spending is still needed to prop up a stubbornly sluggish economy.
It was one of President Obama's marquee pledges for cutting waste — an administration team under the direction of Vice President Joseph R. Biden would slash the proliferating number of federal websites in half within a year.
A year after the government's chief investigators identified 81 areas where the government double-spends or could cut costs, President Obama and Congress have solved just four of them, the Government Accountability Office said in a follow-up report Tuesday.
"From day one, the president has made rooting out waste and improving the way government works a top priority," budget office Controller Danny Werfel said in a blog post previewing the cuts.
Mr. Werfel said agencies should make sure they aren't depleting reserve funds to bolster operations now while sacrificing long-term priorities.
White House tells agencies to protect priorities in sequester →
