Obama's Government Consolidation Plan an Election Year Ploy

COMMENTARY | Proving that the prospect of losing re-election can focus the mind, President Barack Obama has announced a new government efficiency effort that would consolidate a number of functions dispersed across the U.S. government.

The effort would consolidate trade and commerce functions in the Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Export-Import Bank; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Trade and Development Agency, according to the National Journal. The White House claims that the effort would save $3 billion over the next ten years.

According to the Reuters, the Commerce Department would be eliminated under the new plan. Republicans have been trying to eliminate cabinet departments without success for the past 30 years. Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Ron Paul, candidates for president, have promised to eliminate a number of departments and agencies were they to be elected.

It is a tiny amount next to the trillion dollar plus deficit, but it is a start.

The natural suspicion arises that Obama's status as a born-again government efficiency advocate has less to do with conviction and more to do with an election year conversion. Obama, after all, started his presidency on a spending spree with a $900 billion stimulus package that has stimulated very little but the growth of the federal deficit. He is ending his first term and perhaps his presidency by making economies, consolidating departments, and firing bureaucrats.

As the great Glenn Reynolds might say, they told me if I voted for McCain we would see wholesale elimination of cabinet departments and government agencies-and they were right.

A question arises, will the ploy work? One suspects that it will not, mainly because the consolidation will bring about tiny savings compared to what must be cut back to make the deficit manageable. Any one of the Republican candidates will be able to call Obama's plan and then raise him by even more departments and agencies.

Obama has admitted to a great weakness by moving closer to the Republican position that government must be shrunk. He has, of course, grown the government a great deal more than this latest plan will ever shrink it. That too will be pointed out in the campaign that lays ahead.

Sources: Is Obama Trying to Out-Romney Romney--Already? Michael Hirsh, National Journal, Jan 13, 2012

Obama wants export agency, closing of Commerce Department, Laura McInnis, Reuters, Jan 13, 2012