cutting the stimulus, killing the pain

If this weren't so awful, it would be funny.

 

Obama panel probes stimulus waste -- at Ritz Carlton.

By Byron York

Members of a key panel created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus bill, have scheduled a meeting on November 22 to consider ways to prevent "fraud, waste, and abuse of Recovery Act funds." The meeting will be held at the super-luxe Ritz Carlton Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

 

The group is the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, a sub-committee of the larger Recovery Accountability and Transparency board (sometimes known as the RAT board). The stimulus bill set up the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, or RIAP, to make recommendations to identify and prevent waste of the bill's $814 billion in stimulus spending.

"The purpose of the November 22, 2010 meeting is to allow the RIAP to have an open dialogue, with input from the public, on issues relating to fraud, waste, and abuse of Recovery Act funds," says a notice in the Federal Register. Specifically, participants in the meeting will discuss various techniques to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse, as well as larger issues of transparency and public awareness. Portions of the meeting will be open to the public, while other parts will be closed.

And of course, there's one other element to the story: The board is holding a meeting in Arizona, home of the immigration law that President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have condemned and are challenging in court, and a state that is also the target of boycotts by a number of left-leaning groups and local governments around the country.

According to the Federal Register notice, members of the public who want to attend are instructed to send their comments to panel@ratb.gov and write "November 22, 2010 RIAP public comment" in the subject line.

 

GOOD for ARIZONA! but The Ritz?  One wonders what they were thinking, except that the meeting was probably planned before the midterms.  The Repubs had better insist on the Red Roof Inn, or there will be hell to pay in 2012:)

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

This is a little off-topic, but not much. In today's "American Thinker," Lauri Regan writes that the new Congress -- which, of course, holds the purse strings -- "should curb Obama's extravagant lifestyle." This is a superb idea. The notion of using taxpayer dollars to sustain a president with the tastes of an Oriental potentate is repugnant to American sensibilities. There is no reason whatsoever for the POTUS or any other public official to live in opulence that most people cannot even imagine. And this goes double in a time when many, many Americans are struggling just to keep their heads above water. Enough already with the conspicuous consumption! It's time to turn off the spigot.

[Yael]

Even the Queen of England has cut back - http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101020/en_afp/britaineconomybudgetpoliticsroyals_20101020165103 - and the Brits only pay 94 cents each per year to maintain the monarchy! (Queen Elizabeth even sold the royal helicopter.) And the Spanish royal family was cut back as well: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8004484/Spains-Royal-family-cut-budget-for-first-time-in-history.html If Obama is really a European-style citizen of the world, he should be happy to follow suit. First cut I would make would be to the First Lady's extensive staff. That has stuck in my craw from the very beginning. If 9 people were sufficient to serve Jackie Kennedy, then I certainly don't think Michelle needs 24. I know, it's nit-picking.... but still....