“Office of Management and Budget” on The Daily Caller

Peter Orszag, the president’s outgoing Director of the Office of Management and Budget, released the annual mid-year update to the administration’s budget projections at 3 pm last Friday afternoon in a conference call with reporters. That was a dead giveaway that the administration was hoping not to make much news with its latest budget projections, or at least not make news in a way that anyone would notice. (more)

Liberal Democrats are skeptical about President Obama’s decision to appoint a senior official from the Clinton administration to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). (more)

One of Obama’s hand-picked fiscal commissioners calls him a liar — Lad mag offers Democrats an econ lesson — Former health care execs cannot stop patting one another’s butts — If you smoke, shoot, or booze, the government robbed you good this year — Obama flunky is crushed that businessmen do not want to listen to her monotone nonsense all day — Why are Democrats punishing the poors who have no jobs?  (more)

In the latest iteration of the Senate extenders bill, specifically in an amendment by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus, $58 billion of spending is designated as an emergency.  This is for two types of spending:  (1) unemployment benefits, and (2) aid to states, mostly through the federal government paying a higher share of Medicaid spending. (more)

President Obama will order federal agencies Friday to establish a national “do not pay list” to prevent the government from paying benefits, contracts, grants and loans to ineligible people or organizations, according to senior administration officials. (more)

By any objective standard, the administration has hit its political stride. The problem is that it has done so a year late. For very different reasons, Democrats and Republicans alike should be thinking: What if the administration’s first year had not been lost? (more)

For a supposedly dead organization, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now sure has been busy. (more)

It’s called “bait-and-switch”—the sales tactic of conning customers into believing they’re getting a good product, but then delivering shoddy goods instead. (more)

In a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, Reps. Darrell Issa and Lamar Smith urge the OMB to enforce a Second Court of Appeals ruling handed down earlier this week that declared an emergency stay on the funding of ACORN. Specifically, the letter requests that Orszag rescind a March 16 directive that allowed federal agencies dole out federal funds to ACRORN. Orszag handed down the directive based on a March 10 ruling after the Eastern District Court of New York ruled that “various congressional spending prohibitions relating to ACORN were unconstitutional bills of attainder.” (more)

Just when things couldn’t get any better for conservatives in November, they did. The retirement announcement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens just offered them another issue for the fall election. Ironically, as dissimilar as they appear, the confirmation of a new justice offers conservatives the same favorable dynamics that they just enjoyed in the health care reform debate. (more)

With news that financial reform legislation is headed for the Senate floor, it is time to officially scrap the administration’s proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee—the “bank tax.” Now, before the populists with pitchforks and torches start after me, let me emphasize that, sensibly, the TARP law says that the taxpayers must be given a path to recouping their losses. (more)

The White House distanced itself from comments made last week by one of its top economic advisers in support of a new national consumption tax — yet others close to President Obama have similarly spoken in favor of a Value-Added Tax in recent months. (more)

Paul Kennedy, author of “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers,” was wrong. Nations don’t fall because of imperial overstretch. They fall because of entitlement overstretch. It’s not what happens outside their borders, but what they do to themselves inside their borders. (more)

The Obama administration has proposed to overhaul the concept of what constitutes “inherently governmental” activity – with an eye toward keeping jobs that are deemed a core function of the government in-house. (more)

Government should be run like a business. One of the most prevalent reformist assertions about government is also one of the most inaccurate. Why when government assumes the proper role of private enterprise, does the business aspect never prevail? Because government and business are virtual opposites—much to taxpayers’ detriment. Until this, and the reason for it, are understood, any chance of real reform is simply wishful thinking. (more)

Gautham Nagesh passes this along: (more)

From the folks at NextGov: (more)

Frustrated by the administration’s refusal to brief them on the topic, a group of Republican senators are demanding more details on a White House proposal that would overhaul the way the government awards contracts. (more)

So Obama is going to see his party lose congressional seats in November? The only shock would be if he didn’t. This blasé observation has nothing to do with current polls but past trends. Only one Democratic president in the past century has not lost congressional seats in his first midterm election. What is surprising is the left’s failure to point out this fact. (more)

Political winds of change are blowing and, for now, coming from the right. Since August, they have been gusting at hurricane force. The five elections that have taken place since then give an indication of the storm’s strength and the impact it could have if it hits Washington unabated in November. (more)