President Obama discussing 2010 Budget. Photo: AP
In President Obama’s March 7 weekly address to the nation, he said that his administration is committed to reducing the budget deficit and cutting down on government waste. He outlined how he would achieve “$2 trillion in deficit reduction;” and, most importantly, end the way in which government contracts are awarded. With regard to government contracts, especially those involving “no-bid contracts,” Obama referred to his March 4 Presidential Memorandum on Government Contracting. The Memorandum signals Obama’s determination to cut down on wasteful government practices. In following through on his determination, President Obama better watch his back. He is challenging the most powerful vested interests in the U.S. – those behind black budget funding of highly classified projects that totally escape legislative oversight and media scrutiny.
In his Government Contracting Memorandum, Obama referred to the many years of skyrocketing budgets, cost over runs, poor contractor services, etc., that have been regularly cited by Government watchdog entities as responsible for government waste. He wrote:
Reports by agency Inspectors General, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and other independent reviewing bodies have shown that noncompetitive and cost-reimbursement contracts have been misused, resulting in wasted taxpayer resources, poor contractor performance, and inadequate accountability for results.
More significantly, Obama signaled that he was intent on restoring government oversight of contractors fulfilling government programs: "Moreover, it is essential that the Federal Government have the capacity to carry out robust and thorough management and oversight of its contracts in order to achieve programmatic goals, avoid significant overcharges, and curb wasteful spending."
In an earlier Presidential weekly address on February 28, Obama signaled his determination to confront the vested interests that support the status quo on government contracting:
I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this: "So am I."
Obama's determination will be quickly tested by defense industry contractors who are very skilled in circumventing government and military regulations concerning program costs. According to reformers of the bloated defense budget: "Defense contractors and their allies in government will not let that money go without a confrontation."
In pledging to change the way government contracts are awarded, Obama confronts vested interest groups that have long used wasteful government spending as a means to create an officially sanctioned 'black budget'.
Each year the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) lists a number of single line items in its budget that have a program number such as 0605236F, code names like CLASSIC WIZARD or vague descriptions such as “special evaluation program.” These don’t refer to any weapons system known to the general public, Congressional officials or even to defense analysts. These single line items are covers for a ‘black budget’. This top secret slush fund is set up by the Department of Defense (DoD), with the approval of the U.S. Congress, to fund intelligence organizations such as the CIA, and classified weapons programs by the DoD.
The ‘black budget’ allows intelligence activities, covert operations and classified weapons research to be conducted without Congressional oversight. The justification used is that oversight would compromise the secrecy essential for the success of such ‘black programs’. These ‘black programs’ are typically classified as ‘Special Access’ or ‘Controlled Access Programs’ and have a security classification system more rigorous than the ‘top secret’ classifications for most government agencies. Such programs are known only to those with a ‘need to know’.
In changing the way in which government contracts are awarded, and desiring to restore government oversight of how contractors spend funds, President Obama is ultimately challenging the way in which 'black programs' are run and 'need to know' access is given. As Obama follows through on his commitment to end wasteful government spending and exercise greater executive oversight, he will discover the existence of two black budgets. It will be the less well known 'unofficial black budget' that will pose the greatest challenge for Obama in following through with his commitment to end government waste.
Continued: Obama's black budget and federal deficit problems
[Author Note: My newly released Exposing U.S. Government Policies on Extraterrestrial Life (2009) contains a detailed exposé of the Black Budget that updates an earlier 2004 report - see below.]
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Comments
LOL! President Obama seems to have started barking just another time - but the effect will be zero. He will fail again, as his 'open government' initiative has already failed. Gracefully. Remember, America is currently conducting two wars. Without the multi-trillion defense contrator industry, winning such conflicts would be not more than illusions. Advanced military hardware is expensive. Remember, the price-tag of every single B-2 bomber has a 2 billion number.
If President Obama really wanted to decrease military R&D expenses, he had to stop the wars. So simple is that. However, such a step would all but easy. Military industry is the only working economical support in America.
Are you a 33rd degree Freemason or something, Shol'va? The military industrial complex is a creaking old boat that is leaking and the galleys are about to explode. It is time for a new paradigm. How exactly has Obama failed? He has been and continues to be a raging success. "So simple is that" to end a war? Excuse me, have you ever ended a war before? And you have no idea what kind of "advanced military hardware" exists that could siphon off nearly 1.7 TRILLION a year every year since 1998! With that kind of hardware, I think it's fair to say it's not all on B-2 bombers.
Additionally, Shol'va, there are only 19 operational B2s in existence, two being a B2 that crashed and was destroyed (at a cost to taxpayers of 1.7 billion dollars- that could have fed quite a few starving children! But never mind that, this is supposedly the only "working" (try telling that to the crashed bomber) economical support in America!) and one used only for a flight test. So at an average cost of 1.4 billion to 2 billon per plane, not including the crashed one, that comes out to a range of $26.6 billion to 38 billion. Considering the B2 is one of the higher end purchases, where does that leave the remainder of the $1.7 Trillion with a T dollars? And you wish NOT to have accountability, oversight, or auditing for projects that no one has access to? What kind of "working economical" model is that? I can only conclude that you are insane or a Republican with that kind of economic model bolstering your confidence.
@Liketanynot
LOL! I have nothing to do with freemasonry - and I've never claimed B-2 bombers would syphon yearly 1700 billion US$ from your wallet. However, yes, we have advanced technologies, that can easily do that. The true reason, why not all technologies can be disclosed is, there are things, that are so mindbogglingly powerful, nukes become toys beside that. Unfortunately, every energy- conversion- and propulsion technology can be used for power-plant and peaceful applications - but also as a bomb. Only the amount of fuel converted by a particular unit of time decides about the purpose. Since humanity is far from a stage of evolution, we could (theoretically) sell weapons grade uranium or plutonium in a super-market - and nobody would build a bomb from it, people have to wait a couple of decades or centuries until we will have aquired the maturity, people can handle large amounts of energy without the danger, a crazy individue blew up our planet (or parts of it). So simple is that. Meanwhile, America's industry can do, what it has ever done: Supply the military with expensive hardware. War economy mitigates at least the current depression in your country.
And the higher the quality of your military hardware is, the fewer soldiers will return in body bags.
Fewer soldiers will return in body bags when we take ourselves out of a military-industrial-corporate economy. Fewer soldiers will return in body bags when you give them options in education and jobs-- most do not CHOOSE to join the military, they do so because they can't afford and/or have the education to do much else. Fewer soldiers will return in body bags when we stop relying on a sensibility such as yours that seems to agree that the "only" economy that is worth investing in is the military industrial corporate complex. And for the record, we need to move away from any kind of energy that hasn't figured out to do with the waste biproduct. It is 1000 times more efficient and SAFE for the planet and its inhabitants to focus on sustainable energy-- not uranium, nuclear, and the like.
"I've never claimed B-2 bombers would syphon yearly 1700 billion US$ from your wallet."
I didn't imply that you did- I was *telling* you that as a *fact*-- it is a statistic. We the taxpayers have to cover the loss of that crashed B2- you don't apparently as you are not a US citizen- let me guess? Israeli? If you've been indoctrinated into a culture that sees militarization as the only option, then of course you have been culturally conditioned to think military build up to be a "sane" "economically feasible" route. But you'd be wrong. It's more cold war paranoia and destruction and murder and blood money- not "economic feasibility".
The "mature" thing to do as you say is to *avoid at all costs* emphasizing a military-based economy and re-structuring the model so that more citizens, not just hot-shots sitting in a cockpit or some munitions worker, can enjoy the benefits. You cannot tell me that the majority of the 6.6 billion people on this planet are enjoying a quality of life improvement from the military industrial corporate complex. Especially when one third of those citizens of the planet lives on less than a dollar a day. The math does not add up. SOMEONE is surely benefitting, but it is not the masses, its certainly not me, and I am pretty sure its not you either. You are identifying with the captor here, it's more commonly known as Stockholm Syndrome, look it up if you don't know what I mean. You are sympathizing with a pathology.
PS- Read John Perkins' book Confessions of An Economic Hitman if you don't want to listen to what I am saying. Do not even bother to understand the effects of the military industrial corporate complex on the citizens of this planet until you read an insider's account of how the world *really* works, and tell me then if it is a feasible economic structure- and for whom?
@Liketanynot
LOL again! You seem to have spezialized yourself in jumping on quick (and wrong) conclusions, and, according to your own words, you have not even the slightest idea about physics.
I'm neither an Israeli, nor I do suffer from the Stockholm Syndrome, what is - by the way - rather applicaple for kidnapping victims who start to support the kidnapper's goals, than for a particular political point of view; nor I'am a proponent of uranium or plutionium economy.
The two wars, US has begun are a fact. Both wars can not be ended without disatrous consequences. [Stopping the war in Iraq would destabilize the whole middle- and dear east, stopping it in Afghanistan would give the ignition keys of Pakistan's nulear weapons right into the hands if the Taliban]. By the way, a war does not grow by itself. Politicians decide it. As long as politicians are in the power to start offensive wars, they will do. And where an attacker is, there are people who want to slice up the defence. Defence industry simply lives on this mechanism. And this life is so comfortable, we can't afford advanced, powerful, clean and safe energy sources (like aneutroneus fusions reaction) without the fear, somebody would abuse it for bombs with never seen power of destruction. (Yes, I work with these things - among others, I won't talk about about)
Of course, we can pave our planet with solar cells or plant energy plants (instead of food plants) to replace fossile fuels, and we can take the bicycle instead of the plane, but we have already too many people on this planet to feed, we could do it in the good old 'green' manner. And we have a climate that is collapsing - just now.
So if you wanted to convince somebody about your ideas, you should at least come forward with feasable propositions, otherwise your words are nothing more than empty, polemic babble. I'd suggest, you read again carefully my last post and took a new aproach.
PS: You remember my trademark?
;-))
Any feasible propositions that were made are clearly stated. Wind, solar, tidal energy, as well as other clean technologies that have been held back from the public for years are more than feasible, they could be constructed and set up with far less time and energy (and money) than a nuclear power plant could - refer to Dr. Salla's excellent article about Obama paving the way for energy incentives by creating an unprecedented directive to open the door for antigravity technology to the public sector. The template already exists. The military is well past the prototype stage for these vehicles and have been for years. It wouldn't take anything relatively speaking to "set up shop" as it were, because the shop has been there for decades. They only need to remove the curtain so that it may be revealed to the rest of us. And more importantly USED by the rest of us.
Your love of laughter (LOL!) apparently has made you deaf to my statements.
Additionally, you agree with me, and then tell me it is not feasible as an energy source and yet all of these technologies I mention are not so hard, expensive, or difficult to assemble on a mass scale if the incentive is there, and far less toxic that radioactive waste and/or nuclear meltdown. (Does the word "Chernobyl" hold any significance for you?)
Riddle me this: The world is fast approaching the ecological point of no return, and your solution is the heavily sponsored and backed oil industry, which in turn has much investment in the military industrial complex which in turn benefits only a very minute percentage of the populace, while billions live on less than a dollar a day, and you propose that this global suicide path we are on is the "only reasonable solution" to our problems.
No offense, but that's patently ridiculous! You throw your hands up in the air and claim that the military industrial corporate fossil fuel industry-backed complex is the answer to all of our prayers, and yet it is the very same system that has brought us collectively to all of our knees!
You sir, are as Spock on Star Trek says, illogical!
Oh, and in reply to your statements about the US's engagement as an imperial hegemony- um, no other way to say it: DUH. That's precisely why I recommended the book I recommended. That's entirely what this problem is all about.
We've been an imperial power who has a military presence on every continent on the globe for at least 100 years, beginning with Teddy Roosevelt on. What else is new? There's diplomacy, and then there's hegemony. I think Obama is more aligned with the former rather than the latter. He's *inherited* hegemony, but that doesn't mean he has intent to continue it at the pace it has been going. Nor is he interested in creating new and better ways to make the rest of the world hate us. We have military bases all over the globe and that is not going to go away. You don't have to agree with that, it's a reality, but military supremacy is not going to become the solution to everything as the last administration's modus operandi was.
As for this:
[Stopping the war in Iraq would destabilize the whole middle- and dear east]
-- Actually, creating jobs for IRAQI citizens and rebuilding power and water supply for them would stabilize the country. It would do more for morale and civil calm than a military presence, that's for darn sure. As for your reference to destabilizing the surrounding areas-- how could they possibly be more compromised and tense than they already are? The only way to go is up.
An American presence will NEVER leave the middle east, it's just not going to happen. That's called *reality*, Mr. Laugh Out Loud. The only question that logically should remain is not whether or not we leave these areas, because that's just not going to happen, but rather the question that remains is: what do we do with engaging these areas now with our presence?
We can choose to stabilize those parts of the world by letting IRAQI citizens have the jobs that companies like Haliburton have denied them for starters. That might calm them down a touch. That is if we haven't already permanently poisoned the well of good intent to begin with as it were.
"stopping it in Afghanistan would give the ignition keys of Pakistan's nulear weapons right into the hands if the Taliban]."
- Well there's no danger of that happening for the time being: you'll be THRILLED to note that Obama just signed for 10,000 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan, so any withdrawl anytime soon is highly unlikely. I do not agree with him on that matter, but it is an inherited quagmire, and quagmires in general do not tend to magically just disappear overnight.
IT's a $884.0 billion doller account ,witha $88 billion sub a acccount. all privet money. USDOD did not chip in.
how new prougeit are done is from Intrest off the account.
As of yeat US DOD has not payed up on the derivitive the $884.0 trillion dollers in lossing when my technologys
put out cherobyl.. unless i see cash. I drop the cherobyl technology's in the tree sheader the burn barrel.
the cost of pocker just went up.
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
an person of color an wisements an youth an your hoods just like your family of cheaters an you are the failures of are s an colon pile you to so step down with the next election an by the way ther is no teaching of are culture that has or do anthing with paster plattes an well smith an others you gotten this far from the other side an now the church i well proveil an take the french an the english an the moneys an this free trade an jobs are not the failure of us but you the oroblems an senate stealings an future an past fixs your people an your lands an we the people well bring down the powere just like you t5ry to put ares against us an the energy to be all black an communist thats it with the colors
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