Obama said many times that he would propose spending reductions in some areas. He said that there should not be across-the-board spending reductions, like McCain proposed. He proposed going “line by line” to produce a “net spending cut” while specifically citing $15 billion in costs that he thought were non-productive.
He did not say “all spending is equivalent to waste.” He was saying just the opposite. That there are many good government programs, and their budgets should not be cut; but cuts in poor government programs will be made. That’s what Obama said in two of the three debates, so it is part of the public record, and I have quoted it.
Why do some people have such a hard time admitting that they were mistaken, even such an inconsequential one such as this?
According to your cites, he’s already cut a lot of waste. I’m sure he’s not literally going through every page of the budget with a fine-toothed comb, that kind of hyperbole is simply the exaggerated rhetoric typical of any election season. But he promised to cut waste and he has done it. The health care bill probably will amount to the most savings over the long term of anything else he’s done
Please provide a link to his official platform that doesn’t mention cutting waste.
All I can find is this Democratic party platform from 2008, which says “The key is to make the tough choices, in particular enforcing pay-as-you-go budgeting rules. We will honor these rules by our plan to … eliminate waste in existing government programs…” Later the platform says, “We will pay for our new spending, eliminate waste in government programs, demand and measure results, and stop funding programs that don’t work.”
Basically, I contend that if Obama argued for a particular position during his run for the presidency, then that position is part of his campaign.
Can you name other policy positions that he took during his speeches or debates that are not part of his platform?
YogSosoth: I agree that Obama has indeed cut some waste. And I expect there is going to be a lot more cutting in the next two years.
True, it still needs to fully go into effect. But it doesn’t change the fact that Obama did cut waste. Whether the GOP wants to insert that waste back into the government or not, it is on them
I think that had the GOP not fought him tooth and nail the last 2 years, he would have gotten a lot more waste cut. There were plenty of things that amounted to waste that Obama tried to get rid of, but was forced to keep around or delay cutting