Rangel Gathers Community Leaders To Blast Budget Cuts

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y) gathered fellow congressional leaders and religious community leaders on Thursday to discuss how the federal budget is not only a political issue, but a moral one

“Whether you’re a Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Muslim, we all have a moral obligation to help the poor, the aged, and the sick,” Rangel declared.

After Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Cali.), Donna Christensen (D-V.I) spoke about the moral implications of cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Rangel introduced four different religious community leaders to explain how religion dictates that one must help the poor.

“What has been missing,” Rangel explained, ”is the collective voices of those ministers and Rabbis and imams that have been screaming out in the communities that have decided to come together.”

“Everyone has to pay their fair share,” Rangel continued. “We have to close the gap of income inequality between the top 1% and the 99% of Americans who are suffering.”

Holder Denies Guilt Over "Fast And Furious"

By Adrianna McGinley

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today condemned federal officials for authorizing controversial “gun-walking” tactics under Operation Fast and Furious, but told lawmakers he is committed to investigating and holding accountable those responsible.

“I think that I acted in a responsible way by ordering the Inspector General investigation,” Holder said to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “On the basis of that report and any other information that is brought to my attention, those people who did make mistakes will be held accountable.”

Holder called the Operation “flawed in its concept and flawed in its execution.” He said that its impacts will be felt for years to come since many guns that ATF agents allowed to be purchased and carried across the U.S. border into Mexico are still unaccounted for and some continue to appear at cartel crime scenes.

“This should never have happened, and it must never happen again,” Holder said.

While admitting that there were grave mistakes made during Fast and Furious, Holder said it was in fact “a flawed response to, not the cause of” illegal gun flow into Mexico and the violence that results.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked Holder if he has or would like to apologize to the family of deceased Border Patrol Agent Brian Terr, who was murdered last December. Weapons discovered at the crime scene were traced back to Fast and Furious.

“I certainly regret what happened,” Holder replied. “It is not fair, however, to assume that the mistakes that happened in Fast and Furious directly led to the death of Agent Terry.”

Holder pledged that the Department of Justice is committed to punishing Mexican drug cartel members who have murdered American citizens. He also said that his agency is working with the Mexican government to curtail the violence caused by the cartels. To that point, Holder expressed concern that Republicans in Congress have proposed cutting DOJ’s budget for the coming fiscal year.

“Those proposed cuts are simply unacceptable and place this nation at risk…We are enjoying historically low crime rates…[DOJ cuts] put at risk the possibility that these historically low rates will not remain there forever.”

Holder suggested Congress take into consideration testimony from whistleblower agents who have called on Congress to support the fight against illegal weapons being trafficked into Mexico.

OMB Director Urges Partnership With Agencies When Making Cuts

By Andrea Salazar

With budget cuts looming, the White House’s top budget official expressed his desire to work in partnership with federal agencies when going through the budget process.

Jack Lew, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, spoke to federal leaders and managers on Tuesday at an event timed to coincide with the release of a new report, entitled “Making Smart Cuts: Lessons from the 1990s Budget Front.” The report was put out by the Partnership for Public Service.

“One of the things I am urging, from an OMB perspective, is that we look at agencies as partners, in the sense that we not dictate here are the ways to achieve all of the savings, to give agencies tools, and to do it in a way that is, perhaps, less directive and more as guidance,” Lew said.

Instead of commenting on the report itself, however, Lew focused on government reform and performance.

“We have an obligation, those of us who believe that government serves an important function, to be there both making the case that there’s this duty to serve the public and to provide essential services but equally the duty to show that we have the capacity to do it better, to do it more effectively, to do it more efficiently and in the case of the budgetary times we are in, to do it more cheaply,” he said.

Looking to the 1990s for advice on the U.S. budget, the Partnership for Public Service interviewed more than 30 current and former federal officials about their experiences with downsizing during that decade. The group outlined four conditions for success in the 1990s and eight strategies used during those times to deal with budget cuts.

The report is available on the Partnership for Public Service website.

Panel Argues For "Super Committee" Cuts To Be Private Until Finalized

In a paneled discussion hosted by the Brookings Institute on Friday, three fiscal experts discussed the deficit’s impact on American national security and foreign policy.

Panelists included ,  and e at Brookings. Michael O’Hanlon, director of research for Foreign Policy and the 21st Century Defense Initiative, moderated the discussion. 

“We have a new opportunity now to solve the real problem and this deal may be the first step towards a positive resolution,” Alice Rivlin, senior fellow of economics studies at the Brookings Institution, said about the new deficit-reduction bill. 

The deficit-reduction deal, signed by President Obama on August 3, requires between $400 million and $1.5 billion of cuts from the national security budget, most of which is projected to come from defense. 

According to Rivlin, there are three critical moves to reduce deficit spending; reduce the growth of entitlement spending, reform tax codes to ensure increased tax revenue and cap discretionary spending.

Rivlin explained that the fastest growing major category in the defense budget is healthcare and major cuts need to be made. 

“The TRICARE For Life Program is an extremely generous and costly healthcare program that should be monitored,” Rivlin suggested.

TRICARE For Life is a Medicare supplement entitlement for medicare-eligible military employees and their dependents that have little co-insurance or deductible.

Former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley echoed Rivlin’s sentiments and said that it is not fair to the active military force that the retirees have as good of a deal as it does.

“We let people retire after 20 years when they are fairly young and they can get other jobs but they still receive military retirement. Let us lengthen the period of service… so we pay them but we also get something for it in terms of our contribution to the military. There is an interaction and a set of reforms that can both make the military better and more effective and less costly,” Hadley said.

But, according to Senior Fellow Peter Singer, director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative, it is not as much about what to cut as it is about how to cut.

“We need to focus on the how question. What are the principles by which we might go about it smartly? Identify where real savings are versus false savings,” Singer said. 

“We have to be willing to question 20th century assumptions about 21st century national security,” Singer continued. “We have personnel benefit system that is designed for the generation of mad men that is now the generation of google. It’s expensive and doesn’t fit their needs.” 

Singer also suggested cutting areas in Pentagon spending, such as the National Missile Defense program. 

“We have spent more on that project than we spent on the entire Apollo space project that put a man on the moon,” Singer revealed. 

Over the past 27 years, the U.S. government has spent an estimated $150 billion on the National Missile Defense program and the success rate is a mere 8 out of 15, according to Singer. The Apollo mission, which successfully put man on the moon, cost an approximate $100 billion. 

All three panelists agreed, however, that whatever the “super committee” decides to cut should be kept quiet until it is finalized. They suggested some form of a non-disclosure agreement so ideas will not be immediately shut down as they are circulated in the press and people won’t hear about various cuts without understanding the context they are made in or the strategic trade-offs.