Wow! Republican Lite? Obama?

Be still my beating heart!

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama moved to claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility in a roiling economy, vowing on Monday to slash federal spending on contractors by 10 percent and saving $40 billion.

Urging members of his own party to be just as fiscally tough as the most conservative Republicans, Obama said the $700 billion economic bailout plan proposed by the Bush administration and congressional leaders is forcing a renewed look at federal spending.

On contractors.  $40 Billion.  Let’s see – at $3 Trillion / year => 4%

That’s DEEP cuts?  Who is he kidding (oh yeah, the 25% of kids that fail to get a high school degree at public education schools)?

Math is as follows:  $700 Billion – $40 Billion = $660 Billion of extra spending by week’s end.  And pretty much, I’m betting that $700 Billion could go to $1.5 Trillion -> 1/2 of a Federal budget fiscal year.

Hey, Barry!  You going to have to do better than that to out-do "most conservative Republicans." And I bet where most of those contractors are going to come from – DoD.  You just KNOW they are going to be from social services, right?

As president, Obama said he would create a White House team headed by a chief performance officer to monitor the efficiency of government spending.

"I am not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every government program just because it’s there," Obama said at a rally in Green Bay. "We will fire government managers who aren’t getting results, we will cut funding for programs that are wasting your money and we will use technology and lessons from the private sector to improve efficiency across every level of government."

"The only way we can do all this without leaving our children with an even larger debt is if Washington starts taking responsibility for every dime that it spends," he said.

My, my; he’s sounding fiscally tough!  Unfortunately for him, his past history belies this new stance.  Only a Congressional Democrat believes that a new layer of bureaucracy, his Chief Performance Office" is going to do what he pontificates about.  My view – lipstick on a pig (there, I used it!)

"We are here because an ethic of irresponsibility has swept through our government, leaving politicians with the belief they can waste billions and billions of your money on no-bid contracts for friends and contributors, slip pork projects into bills during the dead of night and spend billions on corporate tax breaks we can’t afford and old programs we don’t need," said Obama.

He should know about those earmarks – he’s done about a BILLION BUCKS worth in his short time as a Senator – just ask his wife about the million he swung to her place of business or the earmarks he showered upon his former Pastor (Rev. Wright) and his church. I think the operative phrase is "takes one to know one".

President Bush ran for office on a platform of efficiency in government, Obama said, noting that Bush instead has presided over a mushrooming federal budget and deficits. Under Bush, spending on contractors has more than doubled, from $203 billion in 2000 to $412 billion in 2006.

Very true – Bush could have vetoed much of this, but to say that he’s been ineffective at protecting our tax dollars would be most kind.

"We cannot give a blank check to Washington with no oversight and accountability, when no oversight and accountability is what got us into this mess in the first place," said Obama. He warned that even as the government moves to bail out the financial sector there are signs that special interests are looking to profit.

So why, Barry, do you want to give up to $850 Billion over 10 years to the bastion of efficiency, openness, and transparency called the UN.  Once again, we see the Democrat idea that giving other peoples’ money to yet other people is to be called charity and "neighborliness".