Iraq Reconstruction IG Nabs a Couple Bad Guys

U.S. Soldiers in Iraq

The office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) released its 24th quarterly report on Saturday. If you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on in Iraq recently, it's worth a read. Besides providing observations on what's happening in the country and detailing the sources and uses of reconstruction funds, the inspector general's report also describes their recent oversight activities and successes in rooting out corruption within government contracting overseas.

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Tax Expenditures: The Spending that Dare Not Speak Its Name

In our statement on the president's FY 2011 budget request to Congress, we mentioned a column in Tuesday's WaPo by Len Burman in which he called for a freeze in tax expenditures. The column, however, deserves more attention than just the one liner we added in the OMB Watch statement.

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A Look at Regulatory Agencies in Obama’s Frugal Budget

The Office of Management and Budget unveiled President Obama’s FY 2011 budget request on Monday. Obama has decided to propose a spending freeze for discretionary, non-defense budget items. (See OMB Watch’s statement here.) Because Obama has proposed an overall freeze and not a line-item-by-line-item freeze, spending could be transferred to other areas to reflect administration priorities.

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President's Budget Far from Change

OMB Watch has released its statement on President Obama's FY 2011 budget request.

Read the whole statement here.

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An OMB Watch Statement on President Obama's Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2010—President Obama has sent his budget request for fiscal year 2011 to Congress. Far from bringing change, it at best tinkers with federal priorities while perpetuating the wrong budget agenda.

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What Makes Defense Spending so Special?

A Waste of Money

Following up on Craig's post earlier this evening, I wanted to point out some of the really good points that Spencer Ackerman over at the Washington Independent and Matt Yglesias over at Think Progress have been making all day about President Obama's recently announced spending freeze. Ackerman asks why in the world defense spending should go unaffected and Yglesias adds that, while there are reasons to treat various kinds of spending and taxes differently, "the security / non-security distinction doesn’t hold up ... at all."

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Emptying the Sea with a Teaspoon

We here in the Budget Brigade have been trying to get our heads around President Obama's announcement that his FY 2011 budget will propose freezing non-security discretionary spending at 2010 levels. Here's what has us beating our heads against our desks.

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Knee-Capping Budget Thuggery from OMB?

WaPo's Federal Eye (AKA Ed O'Keefe) reported this morning that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating whether the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is threatening inspectors general (IGs) for reporting to Congress insufficient FY 2011 budget levels.

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