After Splurge, Obama May Put Government On A Diet

In his first month in office, President Barack Obama persuaded Congress to give out economic stimulus sweets totaling $787 billion.

Now, though, he may be poised to put the government on a long-term diet.

"We have to once again live within our means," Obama told business leaders at the White House Feb. 13. "We're going to have to make some tough decisions that many of you are already making in your companies, but the federal government has not made."

He makes it sound so reasonable.

But the federal government is unlike any other employer.

Exhibit A: a fellow named Bob Whitmore, who has been on paid administrative leave from the Labor Department since July 16, 2007.

That's right. Whitmore, who makes $150,000 a year as director of After Splurge, Obama May Ask Government To Go On Diet for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, hasn't worked a day since then while the government supposedly is investigating allegations of disruptive behavior.

Whitmore says he wants to work. He's not a union member and could be fired.

You might think that once somebody in charge somewhere in the vast federal bureaucracy heard about Whitmore, he or she would say, "This cannot go on another day." But you'd be wrong.

Writing about Whitmore in The Washington Post Thursday, columnist Joe Davidson noted that Whitmore testified last June to a House committee about his job situation. Whitmore also charged that the government allows companies to underreport injuries. That made a splash in newspapers and TV. And yet Whitmore is still sitting at home, getting paid.

Let's stipulate that most people on the federal payroll go to work. And that the Whitmore case is highly unusual. And yet, it goes to a mindset that is as foreign to the business world as it is entrenched in government. The mindset makes it very difficult for anyone to bring real change to Washington.

The government plays with funny money. Oh, it's real all right, but it just doesn't seem real. That makes "living within our means" a remote concept.

No company would let such a situation like Whitmore's drag on this long, paying someone to do nothing.

I read about Whitmore, saw a report that the federal deficit could reach nearly $2 trillion this year and then read that Obama is hosting a "fiscal responsibility summit" Monday.

Dozens of House members, senators and think-tank wonks from both parties and differing economic views will come to the White House to discuss the fiscal mess. On Tuesday, he will outline his budget priorities in his first, primetime address to a joint session of Congress.

And on Thursday Obama will send Congress his preliminary budget for 2010. Details aren't expected until March or April.