Topic - Office Of Management And Budget

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  BACON: Fleeced by the Fed

  The Federal Reserve Board announced plans last Tuesday to keep short-term interest rates at near zero for another three years and said it might embark upon another bond-buying program to drive down long-term interest rates. The stock market rallied and President Obama's supporters hailed the rising stock market as a sign of his brilliance as a manager of the economy.

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  Obama names Zients as interim OMB chief

  In a bit of reshuffling between the White House and its Office of Management and Budget, President Obama on Tuesday tapped Jeffrey Zients as the OMB's acting director.

• Inside Politics

  The House Republican campaign chairman, Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, has been notified that he received a discounted mortgage from the now-defunct Countrywide Financial Corp.

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  Daley stepping down as White House chief of staff

  White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley will step down from his position at the end of this month, with Jack Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget, taking his place to lead the president's team heading into a difficult re-election year.

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  USPS memo highlights privacy violations

  The U.S. Postal Service has quietly sought to "immunize" itself from Privacy Act challenges to its address-correction service, a program that gives credit, marketing and data-service providers access to updated name and address information for tens of millions of Americans.

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  MURDOCK: Congress should recall forgotten cash

  Only in Washington could nearly $700 billion fester as Congress scrambles for cash. Earth to the congressional leadership: Precisely $687 billion fills federal coffers, officially "unobligated" and, thus, available. Nonetheless, Democrats and Republicans are clobbering each other over how to finance a $185 billion, one-year extension of the payroll-tax holiday, to help Americans survive today's economic unpleasantness.

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  GRIFFITH: Solyndra:Steven Chu's bad bet

  "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away and know when to run."

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  VADUM: Obama uses taxpayer cash to back ACORN Name changes used to dodge the law

  The Obama administration has showered its allies at ACORN Housing with $729,849 so far this year despite powerful, newly unveiled evidence of corruption and massive accounting irregularities at the longtime affiliate of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).

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  General: Prioritize nuclear upgrades in budget

  U.S. strategic nuclear forces are old, in dire need of modernization and face "draconian" cuts because of the federal budget crisis, the commander of U.S. nuclear forces said Tuesday.

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  Panetta gets VIP flights at coach cost

  Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta commutes home to Monterey, Calif., nearly every weekend on a government jet and reimburses just a fraction of the cost to taxpayers — an arrangement that is coming under scrutiny during Washington's tough budget times.

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  LAMBRO: Shining spotlight on solar panel bankruptcy

  The White House's half-billion-dollar loan to a now-bankrupt solar-energy firm is just the first act in an emerging scandal of insider political influence over a deeply flawed clean energy program.

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  RAHN: William Niskanen, wise and principled

  If only we had followed his recommendations, the United States and the rest of the world would not be in the present mess. On Oct. 26, the world lost one of its wisest, most competent and principled economists, William Niskanen. Bill did his undergraduate work at Harvard and earned a doctorate from the University of Chicago, where he studied under Milton Friedman. He then taught at a couple of leading universities, was a high-level official at the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department, served as chief economist of the Ford Motor Co., was a member and, ultimately, head of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers and finally, served for more than two decades as the chairman of the Cato Institute.

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  MILLER: Unraveling red tape

  The Obama administration's red tape is strangling business and dragging down economic growth. Members of both parties on Capitol Hill are getting an earful from constituents about the need to give local businesses a breather. Now a bipartisan, bicameral group is working on a long-overdue overhaul of the process by which federal agencies draw up rules.

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  ZUBRIN: Obama readies to blast NASA

  Word has leaked out that in its new budget, the Obama administration intends to terminate NASA's planetary exploration program. The Mars Science Lab Curiosity, being readied on the pad, will be launched, as will the nearly completed small MAVEN orbiter scheduled for 2013, but that will be it. No further missions to anywhere are planned.

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  LAMBRO: Supercommittee's insuperable timidity

  In a budget nearing $4 trillion a year, it strains credulity to hear members of the deficit supercommittee say they're still no closer to finding $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade.

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