White House Aims to Cut Wasteful Government Spending

There will be no more shipments of empty containers or publishing of the Federal Register under a new push by the Obama administration to cut down on wasteful government spending.

Sorry Fiddlin' Foresters, your government-funded website is going to get cut too.

Monday announcement made by Vice President Biden aims to build on what the White House hails as a nearly waste-free implementation of the stimulus. "The idea is simple. Taxpayers should be able to see exactly what their tax dollars are buying. And trace the progress of the work under the government program just like they did under the Recovery Act. There's no reason it shouldn't be that way for all of these programs."

Biden also hailed the bipartisan support from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

"The bureaucracy is resistant to change," House Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. said in a statement. "When I met with Vice President Biden in November, we both shared a vision of increased transparency in all federal spending. We are on the same page on the goals we want to achieve."

An early focus of the new effort will be to eliminate redundant or unnecessary websites. "Did you know that the federal government pays for a website dedicated to a folk music ensemble made up of forest rangers?" President Obama asked in a White House video released in conjunction with Monday's announcement.

Obama said he'd put music from the Fiddlin' Foresters on his iPod but wouldn't have the government pay to keep up the band's website. "And there are hundreds of similar sites that we should consolidate or just get rid of."

The president said the new effort is part of his administration's longstanding effort to eliminate pointless waste and stupid spending. He says $33 billion in unnecessary expenses have already been identified this year.