Obama delegates govt waste to Biden, heads to fundraiser

With U.S. military involvement in Iraq ending this month, President Obama's team has unveiled an Iraq "interactive timeline" on the White House website.


Under the headline "Promise Kept," the timeline runs from Obama's inaugural address of Jan. 20, 2009 -- when he said, "we will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people" -- to this month's wrap-up; it features quotes and video clips from key Obama speeches on Iraq.


"American troops have served in Iraq with honor and distinction since March 19, 2003, but the cost to our nation has been great," says the website. "December 2011 marks the end of our mission in Iraq, and the fulfillment of a promise Barack Obama made to the American people even before he became president."


"Now," it adds, "President Obama has made another promise to the troops and their families: We will fight as hard for them as they return home as they have done for us these past nine years."


Targeting waste and making government more efficient have been a priority for my administration since day one. But as we work to tackle the budget deficit, we need to step up our game,” he said.


Obama passed the task over to Biden, who also appeared in the video to declare that cutting waste “depends on a relentless focus on making this a priority focus that can’t be delegated.”


Biden’s Tuesday priority meeting on waste in the government’s $3.6 trillion budget will wrap up in approximately 40 minutes.


Much of the meeting is expected to be taken up with short speeches by Biden, Secretary of the Teasury Tim Geithner, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Jim Cole, the deputy attorney general.


Sebelius and Cole are also slated to tout the campaign during a 12:15 p.m. phone call to reporters.


In June, Biden described the anti-waste campaign in grand terms. “We’re not just eliminating fraud and waste. We hope to be instilling an entire new culture that not only our administration, but every succeeding administration, will in fact pursue,” he said.


“We’re going to give you the government you expect and deserve,” he added.


Obama, too, had grand hopes about the anti-waste campaign: “We need to go after every dime, we need to make government work for you.”


White House officials have not released any information about the fundraiser.