gunsnewing wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Everyone who voted for Trump had to have voted for him because of lying fake news and the Russians! It had absolutely nothing to do with Hillary and her lack of message to the American people. It wasn't because she simply didn't think it was necessary to campaign in Ohio even 1 time. It wasn't because the media and a high number of celebrities tried to "persuade" the "stupid" public to vote for her. Hillary won man she had more votes. Heck she has J R Smith throwing down for her. Oh yeah aliens srugged Comey into making those comments in the last week. Conspiracy man and Trump scks. I am intellectually superior and these Trump voters can't pass an 8 grade math class

Serious question: Why are the Trump supporters trolling here like this? Most of the Democrats and Independents in this thread are at least trying to have a serious and respectful discussion.

Trolling to me is not giving the guy a chance and spreading mass hysteria. Especially when the guy isn't even in office yet. If anything starting blaming the current administration and the DNC for their failures in letting the American people down and forcing Hillary down everyone's throats thinking it would be an easy victory. Reality is she squeaked past a 70+ year old Bernie to win the democratic election. Probably had to have it rigged for her to win. I mean take off the blinders she had an easy road to victory at least in the dnc's eyes. Trump had to beat out what 16 other mostly qualified(sans Christie)republican establishment candidates.

Lets see more legit and unbiased arguments

I don't get what the point is in trashing Hillary Clinton anymore. She's just a private citizen. I know someone whose dad is still watching anti-Hillary Youtube videos all day. Just get a life and move on to things that actually matter now.

A house divided
The alarming response to Russian meddling in American democracy

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2016/12/house-divided

WHY is it unsettling to see Republicans and Democrats squabbling, afresh, about Russian meddling in last month’s presidential election? After all, the basic allegation being debated has been out there for months: namely, that in 2015 and again in 2016 at least two groups of hackers with known links to Russian intelligence broke into the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee, as that party’s national headquarters is known, and into the private e-mail system of such figures as John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, then released a slew of embarrassing e-mails to Wikileaks. Before the election a joint public statement by the director of national intelligence and secretary of homeland security said that intelligence agencies are “confident” that the Russian government directed the hacking. That statement did little to sway supporters of Donald Trump, who heard their candidate cast doubt on that intelligence finding, and instead revel in the contents of the stolen e-mails as they hit the press. This, Mr Trump, was just more evidence that his opponent deserved the soubriquet “Crooked Hillary”.

All that has changed materially in recent days is that—thanks to reporting by the Washington Post and New York Times—we now know that the CIA briefed senior members of Congress before and after the election that, in the consensus view of intelligence analysts, the Russians’ motive was not just to undermine confidence in American democracy generally, but actively to seek Mrs Clinton’s defeat. These latest revelations have probably not changed any minds at all. Republicans who hate Mrs Clinton are still delighted that she was defeated. Democrats who loathe and fear Mr Trump have one more reason to dislike him. Outside Washington, red-blooded Americans who mostly rather dislike President Vladimir Putin (pictured), according to polls, seem to be shrugging off the latest allegations: President-elect Trump was loudly cheered by spectators when he turned up in Baltimore on December 10th to watch the Army-Navy football game, an annual pageant of patriotism.

And that is what is, or should be, so unsettling. Russian interference in elections across the Western world is like a nasty virus, attacking the body politic. Normally, America is protected by powerful, bipartisan immune responses against such a menace. It also boasts some of the world’s most sophisticated intelligence and cyber-defences, and when spooks tell the Republicans and Democrats who lead Congress and sit on the House and Senate intelligence committees of hostile acts by a foreign power, love of country generates a unified response. That immune response is not kicking in this time.

The problem is not that all Republicans in Congress dismiss the claim that Russia tried to meddle in the election. Committee chairmen have promised urgent hearings. “We cannot allow foreign governments to interfere in our democracy,” said Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. Senator John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and no friend of Russia, told reporters: “Everybody that I know, unclassified, has said that the Russians interfered in this election. They hacked into my campaign in 2008; is it a surprise to anyone?” The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Devin Nunes of California, has said that he believes Russia is guilty, but then turned his fire on the Obama administration, saying that President Barack Obama’s desire for a “reset” of relations with Moscow had led him and his spy chiefs to fail “to anticipate Putin’s hostile actions.” He grumbled that Team Obama had “ignored pleas by numerous Intelligence Committee members to take more forceful action against the Kremlin’s aggression.”

Yet Republicans are not conceding a more incendiary idea: that the authoritarian, anti-American government of Russia wanted Mr Trump to win. Mr Nunes, a prominent Trump supporter during the election, calls that “innuendo” based on “lots of circumstantial evidence, that’s it.” Other Republicans are taking the view that it is all very complicated and murky. “All this ‘news’ of Russian hacking: it has been going on for years,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a member of Republican leadership, tweeted: “Serious, but hardly news.”

A startling report in the Washington Post described Republican and Democratic members of the House of Representatives being briefed in a secure room at the Capitol last week and remarking, out loud, that they appeared not to agree even on basic facts, let alone their interpretation. According to unnamed officials quoted in the Post, some Republican members agreed that Russia was a hostile actor, but then argued that logically that meant the government in Moscow would be more likely to want Mr Trump defeated, because he has promised to build up the American armed forces.

Democratic leaders, who are in the minority in both chambers of Congress, have responded by trying to embarrass Republicans into taking a bipartisan approach. The incoming Senate minority leader, Senator Charles Schumer of New York, called it “stunning and not surprising” that the CIA should charge Russia with trying to elect Mr Trump. “That any country could be meddling in our elections should shake both political parties to their core,” Mr Schumer said in a statement. Others have thanked Mr Obama for ordering an investigation into what is known about Russian meddling, and expressed hopes that as much as possible of the probe would be made public before the presidential inauguration on January 20th.

The reasons for this partisan stand-off are not mysterious. For starters, the next president has declared that the allegations of Russian hacking are simply unproven, and launched an attack on the credibility of the intelligence agencies that he will soon command without obvious precedent. Interviewed recently by Time magazine, Mr Trump said of the hacking: “It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.” Asked about his desire for a reset of relations with Mr Putin—ie, precisely the strategy held against Mr Obama by Republicans—Mr Trump is unapologetic. “Why not get along with Russia?” he asked Time. The Russians are “effective” and “can help us fight ISIS.”

Still more remarkably, a statement from the Trump transition office mocked American intelligence agencies, saying: “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.” The official statement declared that the election is now over and it is time to “move on.”

As a result, congressional Republicans are stuck. They have long dreamed of unified government, in which they control both chambers of Congress and the White House, so that they can advance the sort of conservative programme that they believe will set the country on the right course. Smart and candid Republicans always conceded in private that securing the White House was hard because core elements of their programme—eg, cutting taxes for big corporations and slashing regulations—are not very popular. Now they have found a populist standard-bearer who has an astonishing ability to speak to working-class voters, notably whites living in bleak Rust Belt states, and to carry them into power on his coat-tails. Many elements of Mr Trump’s policies make thoughtful Republicans queasy to the point of misery, from his fondness for Mr Putin to his willingness to pick up the telephone and bully company bosses into keeping specific factory jobs in America, as if he were a Gaullist French president rather than leader of a free-market democracy. But many millions of those Mr Trump brought into the party are Trump voters more than they are Republicans, and they frighten and cow members of the party that he has captured.

Talk of Russian hacking puts Republicans in one last bind. Many senior figures on Capitol Hill distrust Mr Putin. But they know that grassroots conservatives see much to like in a Russian-style approach to fighting Islamic terrorism, if that means an unsqueamish willingness to back secular autocrats in the Middle East, and attack targets in Syria with ruthless indifference as to who is underneath. Mr Trump is clearly tempted to do a deal with Mr Putin in which America applauds as Russian warplanes carry out the Trumpian campaign promise to “bomb the **** out of ISIS”, with little thought for collateral damage. The bet in Trump Tower is that the other side of any such deal, perhaps involving the lifting of sanctions on Russia or a promise not to back any further enlargement of NATO, will be greeted by the American public with a yawn.

The hacking row is not quite over. As Lexington writes this posting, aboard an American military transport plane into Baghdad with the Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter, it seems likely that Mr Trump is about to name as his secretary of state Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, the oil company. Mr Tillerson is as close to Mr Putin as any American businessman, even being decorated with Russia’s Order of Friendship.

Expect those links to come up in Mr Tillerson’s confirmation hearing. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican and a Russia hawk, told the Post: “Let’s put it this way: If you received an award from the Kremlin, order of friendship, then we’re gonna have some talkin’. We’ll have some questions.” Mr Trump will be counting on the narrow Republican majority in the Senate to defer to his right to nominate who he chooses to the cabinet, after a bit of theatrics in the committee room.

Some may wonder if this latest squabble matters. There is no evidence of actual collusion between Mr Trump and Russia. Mr Putin’s fierce dislike of Mrs Clinton, who as secretary of state questioned the validity of the 2011 elections in Russia, is more than enough motive to want her defeated. It is unknowable whether the last-minute leaks of Democratic e-mails affected the result. Most straightforwardly, a close election is over and Democratic leaders are not questioning the result.

This squabble does matter. When the next president of America takes his oath of office in January, officers of Russian intelligence can savour a historic win. And that astonishing, appalling fact has divided, not united, the two parties that run the world’s great democracy. That should be enough to unsettle anyone

holfresh wrote:Obama wanted to make a bipartisan public statement about Russia's involvement before the election the Mitch McConnell and the republicans backed away...The had this information before the election but the republicans didn't want to make it public..Mitch McConnell is tripping over himself now to denounce Russia not the everything is being made public...

This has been a long time coming. The Republicans have been continually acting against the best interests of the country for a long time and during the Obama years it reached new lows. Starting on DAY ONE when Mitch McConnell and the Republicans met to plan how they'd sabotage the Obama Presidency. Do we even have to argue these well established fact??? The Debt Ceiling fights that the Republicans waged that caused the U.S. Credit Rating to fall for the 1st time. The Billions of Dollars those stunts cost the country.

Now with this Election they've taken it to even deeper lows!!! I'm done with trying to give these people any benefit of the doubt about who they really work for. Just look at who backs the Republicans and who Trump is bringing into his administration!!! If I were to list all the ways the Republicans and Trump have been acting against the U.S. it would be quite an infamous list.

The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.
5,105 replies 9,204 retweets 30,819 likes

How come we never saw a tweet(statement) like this from either Bush or Obama the last 16 years? or for that matter anyone?

BRIGGS wrote:Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 5h5 hours ago

The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.
5,105 replies 9,204 retweets 30,819 likes

How come we never saw a tweet(statement) like this from either Bush or Obama the last 16 years? or for that matter anyone?

we can add this to the list. we'll cross them off after each one is done.

BRIGGS wrote:Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 5h5 hours ago

The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.
5,105 replies 9,204 retweets 30,819 likes

How come we never saw a tweet(statement) like this from either Bush or Obama the last 16 years? or for that matter anyone?

Because you didn't care about these things until now...Maybe until this morning...Remember when Obama took students loans provided by the government away from banks and had the federal government make the loans directly to students saving students billions???..No right???..Well here are a few more and Trump better roll up his sleeves...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/economy/reform/cutting-waste

Cutting Waste

Instead of accepting the status quo, President Obama has worked from day one to change how business is done in Washington. Under his direction, the Administration has moved to eliminate wasteful spending, streamline what works, and modernize how government operates to save money and improve performance.

From scaling back on no-bid contracts and stopping improper payments to getting rid of unneeded Federal real estate and ending out-of-control information technology (IT) projects, the Administration has worked to reform how Washington spends taxpayer dollars. We’ve focused on cutting spending that is wasteful, duplicative, and outdated and improving the way services are delivered to the American people.

The President has asked the Vice President to lead the “Campaign to Cut Waste,” an initiative to hunt down misspent tax dollars throughout the government, and to build on the accomplishments detailed below:

Eliminating Duplication, Cutting Waste, and Saving Money
To succeed in the world economy, we need to free ourselves from the burden of growing deficits and debt, and strive to get the most out of our government by ensuring that limited resources are not wasted on duplicative, outdated, or ineffective programs.

Going line by line through the budget: In the 2012 Budget, the President proposed 211 terminations, reductions, and savings measures that will save more than $33 billion in 2012 and $400 billion over the next decade.

Consolidating duplicative or overlapping programs: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study with results that came as no surprise to many: there is too much duplication of programs. The Administration has proposed a range of efforts such as eliminating 13 discretionary Department of Education programs and consolidating 38 K-12 programs into 11 new programs that emphasize using competition to allocate funds, giving communities more choices around activities, using rigorous evidence to fund what works. It also proposed merging 55 duplicative, often-earmarked highway programs into five streamlined programs.

Reducing administrative overhead by $2 billion: In its first meeting, the President asked his Cabinet to cut to their administrative budgets, and they responded by identifying 77 cost-saving measures, amounting to $243 million in savings through 2010. Building on this effort, the President is pursuing an aggressive Government-wide effort to curb administrative spending by cutting over $2 billion in areas such as travel, printing, supplies, and advisory contract services. Helping to achieve these goals are the recommendations made from the men and women who work on the frontlines of the Federal governmentas a result of the President’s Securing Americans Value and Efficiency (SAVE) Award competition. Recognizing that the best ideas are often not found in Washington, the President launched the SAVE Award in 2009 to solicit suggestions from frontline Federal workers about how to cut waste.

Disposing of unneeded federal real estate: The federal government is the largest property owner and energy user in the country, but some of that property is not being used productively. Currently, Federal agencies operate and maintain more real property assets than are needed. In June of 2010, President Obama directed Federal agencies to realize $3 billion in savings from the government’s properties by September 30, 2012. By focusing on improving the management of the government’s real estate and getting unneeded properties off our books, agencies have developed plans to exceed the President’s goal and save $3.5 billion. To date, agencies have achieved $1.5 billion in real estate savings since 2010 through sales, consolidations, cancelled projects, and a multitude of efforts to reduce maintenance and utility costs.

Reducing the number of federal data centers: We have identified 962 data centers that will be eliminated by 2015. To start, 24 agencies will close 472 data centers by the end of 2012, and 81 of these data centers have already been shut down.

Curbing spending on contracts: From 2000 to 2008, total spending on contracts grew on average at 12 percent per year. Last year, for the first time in 13 years, the federal government decreased contract spending, coming in $80 billion less than it would have had contract spending continued to grow at the same rate as it did under the Bush Administration.

Increasing competition and reducing “no-bid” contracts to save taxpayers billions: In 2010, we reduced the use of contracts awarded with no or inadequate competition and we cut “no-bid” contract spending by $5 billion.

Leveraging purchasing power to save taxpayer dollars: The U.S. government is the nation’s largest purchaser of goods and services, but for too long, the government shopped as if it were a collection of small businesses. We’ve started to leverage the government’s scale to do the common-sense thing and pool our purchasing power and buy in bulk, just as many families do. Achieving this in just one area – office supplies – should save us up to $200 million over the next four years.

Transforming government record keeping to reduce waste: President Obama has called for a large-scale transformation in how agencies maintain their records through a Presidential Memorandum. This initiative will focus on maintaining accountability to the American public, improving efficiency, and moving from paper-based records to electronic records wherever possible.

Cracking Down on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
The Administration has aggressively pursued waste, fraud, and abuse across government programs.

Reducing improper payments by $50 billion: Each year, the Federal Government wastes billions of American taxpayers’ dollars on improper payments to individuals, organizations, and contractors. The President has set a goal to reducing these improper payments by at least $50 billion by the end of FY 2012, and we have made steady progress toward our goal by already avoiding nearly $4 billion between FY 2009 and FY 2010.

Recapturing at Least $2 Billion in Improper Payments: Each year, Federal agencies also identify and recapture improper payments that are made. The President has also set a goal of recapturing at least $2 billion by the end of FY 2012. We are making great progress in reaching this goal. In FY 2010, agencies recaptured approximately $687 million, more than three times the amount recaptured in the previous year. In addition, in September 2011 HHS announced that it has recaptured nearly $680 million in Medicare Fee-For-Service improper payments in FY 2011.

Establishing a “Do Not Pay” list: We’re creating a one-stop “do not pay” portal that will pull multiple data sources together to provide agencies with an easy-to-use, one-stop source for helping agencies determine whether the potential recipient of a payment is likely to be ineligible for government grants, contracts and other payments.

Cracking down on tax delinquent contractors: The days of no accountability for tax delinquent contractors are over. In accordance with the President’s January 2010 Memorandum on Tax Delinquency, we stepped up efforts to prevent tax delinquents from receiving federal contracts. For the small percentage who do have contracts, we are now holding back or levying payments – collecting their tax debts at unprecedented levels – more than $100 million last year alone.

Pursuing those who cheat Medicare and our seniors: In May 2009, the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the creation of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), making the fight against Medicare fraud a Cabinet-level priority. On just one day in February 2011, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force charged 111 individuals in nine cities -- including doctors, nurses, health care company owners and executives, and others -- for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving more than $225 million in false billing. More recently, in September 2011, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force charged 91 individualsfor their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $295 million in false billing. The Justice Department recovered $2.5 billionin health care fraud recoveries in 2010—the largest such recovery of taxpayer dollars in history.

Leveraging Technology to Save Money and Deliver Results
Information technology (IT) advancements have been at the center of a transformation in how the private sector operates—and revolutionized the efficiency, convenience, and effectiveness with which it serves its customers. The Federal government largely has missed out on that transformation because of poor management of technology investments, with IT projects too often running over budget and behind schedule and failing to deliver promised functionality.

Reviewing IT Projects at Highest Risk for Failure: To end the historic practice of run-away government IT projects that go far over budget, behind schedule, and fail to deliver, the Federal Chief Information Officer and his team have conducted detailed reviews of the largest and highest risk IT projects across the Federal government. In all, we have reduced costs by approximately $3 billion and on average, have accelerated deliverables from over 24 months to 8 months.

Saving Money and Improving Results by Moving IT Applications to the Cloud: The biggest change happening in IT right now is the movement of applications and data to servers accessible by many devices in any location, commonly known as the “cloud.” Through a “Cloud First” policy, we are moving strategies from asset ownership to a utility-based model, in which agencies pay for only the resources and services they consume. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is migrating 120,000 users across 5,000 locations to the cloud, reducing costs by $27 million over a five-year period, while the General Services Administration (GSA) is shifting 17,000 users to the cloud, reducing costs by $15 million over the next five years.

Making Government Information Available: Data.gov opens up the workings of government by making economic, healthcare, environmental, and other government data available on a single website, allowing the public to access raw data and use it in innovative ways. In less than two years, Data.gov has grown from 47 datasets to almost 400,000.

Bringing Transparency to IT Spending: IT Dashboard is a graphically-rich, user-friendly website that enables anyone to track spending on and progress of IT projects across the Federal government. The site tracks more than 6,700 investments and nearly $80 billion in annual Federal technology spending.

Making Government More Open and Responsive
The Obama Administration has been working to make government more open and responsive, providing more information to taxpayers about how their funds are being used as well as delivering government services in a way that is convenient.

Expanding USASpending.gov to provide more information to the public: Taxpayers can track obligations by Federal agencies and obligations made by those recipients to other entities (for example, tracking payments from a prime contractor to a sub-contractor). As of May 2011, USASpending.gov displays over $25.4 trillion in prime awards, based on over 47,000 individual prime awards, and more than $3.9 trillion total in sub-awards.

Launching PaymentAccuracy.gov to track improper payments: Last summer, the Administration launched PaymentAccuracy.gov to give taxpayers a way to make it easier for the public to learn about improper payments and steps that agencies are taking to address this problem. In addition, PaymentAccuracy.gov serves as a central location where taxpayers can help reduce improper payments by reporting on suspected incidents of waste, fraud, and abuse.

Moving government services online:

To improve access to education for students, we modernized and streamlined the Federal student aid application and eligibility determination process, eliminating over 70 questions.
To demystify the citizenship application process for potential citizens, we put a case tracking system online that provides prospective citizens a way to track the status of their immigration case just by entering a number, as they would a FedEx shipment, rather than waiting in line or holding on the phone.
The Department of the Treasury has made significant progress to increase the use of paperless transactions. These include: requiring most businesses to pay taxes electronically, rather than by paper coupon; discontinuing the sale of paper savings bonds sold through payroll and encouraging the sale of electronic bonds; and requiring all new Federal benefit recipients to receive payments electronically as of May 2011 and all existing beneficiaries to convert from paper to electronic payment by March 2013.

djsunyc wrote:twitter is easy for consumption. that article you posted holfresh isn't. and that's what happened to this country - people would rather believe a 140 character message instead of reading the whole thing.

We live in a post Kardashian/post truth world dominated by the likes of Twitter/social media..As a reality star guy, Trump knows this capitalizes on it..His tweets against companies are sending shock waves across Wall Street and he knows it garners attention, the fuel he craves...

nixluva wrote:

holfresh wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 5h5 hours ago

The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.
5,105 replies 9,204 retweets 30,819 likes

How come we never saw a tweet(statement) like this from either Bush or Obama the last 16 years? or for that matter anyone?

Because you didn't care about these things until now...Maybe until this morning...Remember when Obama took students loans provided by the government away from banks and had the federal government make the loans directly to students saving students billions???..No right???..Well here are a few more and Trump better roll up his sleeves...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/economy/reform/cutting-waste

Cutting Waste

Instead of accepting the status quo, President Obama has worked from day one to change how business is done in Washington. Under his direction, the Administration has moved to eliminate wasteful spending, streamline what works, and modernize how government operates to save money and improve performance.

From scaling back on no-bid contracts and stopping improper payments to getting rid of unneeded Federal real estate and ending out-of-control information technology (IT) projects, the Administration has worked to reform how Washington spends taxpayer dollars. We’ve focused on cutting spending that is wasteful, duplicative, and outdated and improving the way services are delivered to the American people.

The President has asked the Vice President to lead the “Campaign to Cut Waste,” an initiative to hunt down misspent tax dollars throughout the government, and to build on the accomplishments detailed below:

Eliminating Duplication, Cutting Waste, and Saving Money
To succeed in the world economy, we need to free ourselves from the burden of growing deficits and debt, and strive to get the most out of our government by ensuring that limited resources are not wasted on duplicative, outdated, or ineffective programs.

Going line by line through the budget: In the 2012 Budget, the President proposed 211 terminations, reductions, and savings measures that will save more than $33 billion in 2012 and $400 billion over the next decade.

Consolidating duplicative or overlapping programs: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study with results that came as no surprise to many: there is too much duplication of programs. The Administration has proposed a range of efforts such as eliminating 13 discretionary Department of Education programs and consolidating 38 K-12 programs into 11 new programs that emphasize using competition to allocate funds, giving communities more choices around activities, using rigorous evidence to fund what works. It also proposed merging 55 duplicative, often-earmarked highway programs into five streamlined programs.

Reducing administrative overhead by $2 billion: In its first meeting, the President asked his Cabinet to cut to their administrative budgets, and they responded by identifying 77 cost-saving measures, amounting to $243 million in savings through 2010. Building on this effort, the President is pursuing an aggressive Government-wide effort to curb administrative spending by cutting over $2 billion in areas such as travel, printing, supplies, and advisory contract services. Helping to achieve these goals are the recommendations made from the men and women who work on the frontlines of the Federal governmentas a result of the President’s Securing Americans Value and Efficiency (SAVE) Award competition. Recognizing that the best ideas are often not found in Washington, the President launched the SAVE Award in 2009 to solicit suggestions from frontline Federal workers about how to cut waste.

Disposing of unneeded federal real estate: The federal government is the largest property owner and energy user in the country, but some of that property is not being used productively. Currently, Federal agencies operate and maintain more real property assets than are needed. In June of 2010, President Obama directed Federal agencies to realize $3 billion in savings from the government’s properties by September 30, 2012. By focusing on improving the management of the government’s real estate and getting unneeded properties off our books, agencies have developed plans to exceed the President’s goal and save $3.5 billion. To date, agencies have achieved $1.5 billion in real estate savings since 2010 through sales, consolidations, cancelled projects, and a multitude of efforts to reduce maintenance and utility costs.

Reducing the number of federal data centers: We have identified 962 data centers that will be eliminated by 2015. To start, 24 agencies will close 472 data centers by the end of 2012, and 81 of these data centers have already been shut down.

Curbing spending on contracts: From 2000 to 2008, total spending on contracts grew on average at 12 percent per year. Last year, for the first time in 13 years, the federal government decreased contract spending, coming in $80 billion less than it would have had contract spending continued to grow at the same rate as it did under the Bush Administration.

Increasing competition and reducing “no-bid” contracts to save taxpayers billions: In 2010, we reduced the use of contracts awarded with no or inadequate competition and we cut “no-bid” contract spending by $5 billion.

Leveraging purchasing power to save taxpayer dollars: The U.S. government is the nation’s largest purchaser of goods and services, but for too long, the government shopped as if it were a collection of small businesses. We’ve started to leverage the government’s scale to do the common-sense thing and pool our purchasing power and buy in bulk, just as many families do. Achieving this in just one area – office supplies – should save us up to $200 million over the next four years.

Transforming government record keeping to reduce waste: President Obama has called for a large-scale transformation in how agencies maintain their records through a Presidential Memorandum. This initiative will focus on maintaining accountability to the American public, improving efficiency, and moving from paper-based records to electronic records wherever possible.

Cracking Down on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
The Administration has aggressively pursued waste, fraud, and abuse across government programs.

Reducing improper payments by $50 billion: Each year, the Federal Government wastes billions of American taxpayers’ dollars on improper payments to individuals, organizations, and contractors. The President has set a goal to reducing these improper payments by at least $50 billion by the end of FY 2012, and we have made steady progress toward our goal by already avoiding nearly $4 billion between FY 2009 and FY 2010.

Recapturing at Least $2 Billion in Improper Payments: Each year, Federal agencies also identify and recapture improper payments that are made. The President has also set a goal of recapturing at least $2 billion by the end of FY 2012. We are making great progress in reaching this goal. In FY 2010, agencies recaptured approximately $687 million, more than three times the amount recaptured in the previous year. In addition, in September 2011 HHS announced that it has recaptured nearly $680 million in Medicare Fee-For-Service improper payments in FY 2011.

Establishing a “Do Not Pay” list: We’re creating a one-stop “do not pay” portal that will pull multiple data sources together to provide agencies with an easy-to-use, one-stop source for helping agencies determine whether the potential recipient of a payment is likely to be ineligible for government grants, contracts and other payments.

Cracking down on tax delinquent contractors: The days of no accountability for tax delinquent contractors are over. In accordance with the President’s January 2010 Memorandum on Tax Delinquency, we stepped up efforts to prevent tax delinquents from receiving federal contracts. For the small percentage who do have contracts, we are now holding back or levying payments – collecting their tax debts at unprecedented levels – more than $100 million last year alone.

Pursuing those who cheat Medicare and our seniors: In May 2009, the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the creation of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), making the fight against Medicare fraud a Cabinet-level priority. On just one day in February 2011, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force charged 111 individuals in nine cities -- including doctors, nurses, health care company owners and executives, and others -- for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving more than $225 million in false billing. More recently, in September 2011, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force charged 91 individualsfor their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $295 million in false billing. The Justice Department recovered $2.5 billionin health care fraud recoveries in 2010—the largest such recovery of taxpayer dollars in history.

Leveraging Technology to Save Money and Deliver Results
Information technology (IT) advancements have been at the center of a transformation in how the private sector operates—and revolutionized the efficiency, convenience, and effectiveness with which it serves its customers. The Federal government largely has missed out on that transformation because of poor management of technology investments, with IT projects too often running over budget and behind schedule and failing to deliver promised functionality.

Reviewing IT Projects at Highest Risk for Failure: To end the historic practice of run-away government IT projects that go far over budget, behind schedule, and fail to deliver, the Federal Chief Information Officer and his team have conducted detailed reviews of the largest and highest risk IT projects across the Federal government. In all, we have reduced costs by approximately $3 billion and on average, have accelerated deliverables from over 24 months to 8 months.

Saving Money and Improving Results by Moving IT Applications to the Cloud: The biggest change happening in IT right now is the movement of applications and data to servers accessible by many devices in any location, commonly known as the “cloud.” Through a “Cloud First” policy, we are moving strategies from asset ownership to a utility-based model, in which agencies pay for only the resources and services they consume. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is migrating 120,000 users across 5,000 locations to the cloud, reducing costs by $27 million over a five-year period, while the General Services Administration (GSA) is shifting 17,000 users to the cloud, reducing costs by $15 million over the next five years.

Making Government Information Available: Data.gov opens up the workings of government by making economic, healthcare, environmental, and other government data available on a single website, allowing the public to access raw data and use it in innovative ways. In less than two years, Data.gov has grown from 47 datasets to almost 400,000.

Bringing Transparency to IT Spending: IT Dashboard is a graphically-rich, user-friendly website that enables anyone to track spending on and progress of IT projects across the Federal government. The site tracks more than 6,700 investments and nearly $80 billion in annual Federal technology spending.

Making Government More Open and Responsive
The Obama Administration has been working to make government more open and responsive, providing more information to taxpayers about how their funds are being used as well as delivering government services in a way that is convenient.

Expanding USASpending.gov to provide more information to the public: Taxpayers can track obligations by Federal agencies and obligations made by those recipients to other entities (for example, tracking payments from a prime contractor to a sub-contractor). As of May 2011, USASpending.gov displays over $25.4 trillion in prime awards, based on over 47,000 individual prime awards, and more than $3.9 trillion total in sub-awards.

Launching PaymentAccuracy.gov to track improper payments: Last summer, the Administration launched PaymentAccuracy.gov to give taxpayers a way to make it easier for the public to learn about improper payments and steps that agencies are taking to address this problem. In addition, PaymentAccuracy.gov serves as a central location where taxpayers can help reduce improper payments by reporting on suspected incidents of waste, fraud, and abuse.

Moving government services online:

To improve access to education for students, we modernized and streamlined the Federal student aid application and eligibility determination process, eliminating over 70 questions.
To demystify the citizenship application process for potential citizens, we put a case tracking system online that provides prospective citizens a way to track the status of their immigration case just by entering a number, as they would a FedEx shipment, rather than waiting in line or holding on the phone.
The Department of the Treasury has made significant progress to increase the use of paperless transactions. These include: requiring most businesses to pay taxes electronically, rather than by paper coupon; discontinuing the sale of paper savings bonds sold through payroll and encouraging the sale of electronic bonds; and requiring all new Federal benefit recipients to receive payments electronically as of May 2011 and all existing beneficiaries to convert from paper to electronic payment by March 2013.

BRAVO 👏🏾 You are on fire 🔥

Obama wasn't going around bragging on all the things he did but as you pointed out he did a lot!!! All with the Republicans doing everything possible to mess him up. Even to the detriment of the American people and the Economy. It's shameful what took place. The Republicans always talk about patriotism and yet they are the least patriotic group in the country.

It's crazy to think that Trump was the first guy to think about cutting waste, isn't it???

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/12/pipeline-spills-176000-gallons-of-crude-into-creek-about-150-miles-from-dakota-access-protest-camp.html