Another Obama High-Level Department Head has resigned

“BUDGETARY PRODIGY” TO LEAVE REGIME NEXT MONTH

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jun. 24, 2010) — Peter Orszag, who reportedly “has a deep understanding of the complex and labyrinthine federal budget process,” has resigned from his current position as Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama regime.

Since January 2009, Orszag has held a “cabinet-level position” along with “the heads of 15 executive departments.”  According to Modern Healthcare, Orszag played a significant role in the “debate” over health care legislation, having advocated for “a White House-appointed independent advisory board that would make recommendations on annual Medicare payment rates” which was included in the bill which Obama signed in March over which at least 20 states, organizations and individuals have filed lawsuits.  Van Irion, a lawyer and candidate for Congress from Knoxville, TN has also filed a class action lawsuit against the health care bill.

Obama had stated that any health care legislation which might be passed would not amount to a new tax.  However, some are insisting that it is and calling it a “bait-and-switch move.”  Even the Justice Department has stated that the legislation passed is within the purview of Congress’s “constitutional power to tax and spend.”

In January of this year, The New York Times had opined that Orszag was “a budgetary prodigy.”  However, according to published reports, Orszag found the last 18 months “trying” and “grueling” as he helped Obama spend more than any other chief executive in the history of the nation by putting together Obama’s first two budgets and playing “a pivotal role in shaping and defending how the administration spends the public’s money.”

One report admits that Orszag “had a hand in the record-breaking deficits run up by the Obama administration,” although George W. Bush is blamed for that.  Now, Obama, along with Orszag, is reportedly asking government departments to reduce spending with an anticipated freeze on spending for some domestic programs after a record-breaking $1.4 trillion deficit was produced by Obama and Congress.  Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) had called Orszag “a hero.”

The Congressional Budget Office, where Orszag had worked prior to joining the Obama regime, reported last month that the implementation of the health care bill will cost $115 billion more than previously anticipated over ten years, even though Orszag, before becoming an architect of the heatlh care bill, reportedly had “believed that the relentless march of health-care costs posed a dire threat to federal finances.”

Orszag and Rahm Emanuel, who is also reportedly leaving the Obama regime, have written a memo to leaders of government agencies asking each of them to submit a list of programs which could be cut or eliminated.  The  reported goal is to freeze “all discretionary spending except in national security.”

Even the liberal Washington Post has stated that Orszag “lost the argument” in regard to the health care legislation’s likelihood of reducing the deficit.