For Immediate Release                                      Contact: Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 
August 25, 2009

CAGW to Obama, Congress:  Get a Grip on Wasteful Spending

(Washington, D.C.) - Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) aimed sharp criticism at the Obama White House and Congress over the alarming new deficit numbers in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Mid-Session Budget Review.  The OMB expects a cumulative $9 trillion deficit from 2010 to 2019, $2 trillion more than the Obama administration predicted just three months ago.  The public debt is expected to double by 2019, skyrocketing to three-quarters the size of the entire national economy.  The Obama administration has finally acceded to reality and brought its underlying economic assumptions more into line with those of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), acknowledging that the nation might see its unemployment figures reach 10 percent this year and only decline slowly in 2010.

"The Obama administration can no longer continue this charade that the ruinous deficit and long-term debt are somehow the fault of an earlier administration.  The White House and Congress control the levers that are driving this train off the rails, and they must stop the long-term damage being done to generations of taxpayers with mindless and egregiously wasteful spending,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “Had the President and his allies truly wanted to reduce government spending, it would have enacted a sensible stimulus much more heavily weighted with innovative, business-friendly tax cuts and put the brakes on the nonsensical spending.  Instead, they enacted ineffectual bailout bills, added to the bloated government employment rolls, and created dozens of new government programs which will have to be paid for by taxpayers.”

In spite of the stark fiscal realities, OMB Director Peter Orszag was told Bloomberg News this morning that the administration intends to continue to push for the ill-conceived $1 trillion healthcare reform agenda, stating, “I know there are going to be some who say this report proves we can’t afford health reform…I think that has it backwards,” because he believes savings must be squeezed from the system.

“One wonders where Mr. Orszag buys his rose-colored glasses,” said Schatz.  “None of the plans being proposed by Congress so far would ‘bend the cost curve,’ according to CBO.  To reduce healthcare costs, the administration should aggressively attack waste, fraud and abuse in existing programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, provide individuals the opportunity to buy their own health insurance if they are uninsured, and allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines.  The past month has proven that Americans don’t want Congress to move forward with the current bills, all of which expand government control over healthcare.”

Director Orszag also said that one way to reduce deficits was to enact “pay-as-you-go” legislation, which is nothing more than a cover for tax increases to fund the administration’s and Congress’s massive spending sprees.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.

                                                                   -###-