The White House is considering dismissing several members of the National Security Council who are viewed as being disloyal to President Trump, including Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, three people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News.
The White House doesn't want it to look like people are being retaliated against, and will frame this as a way to make the NSC smaller, Bloomberg News reports.
Vindman, the NSC's director of European Affairs and a Ukraine expert, testified during Trump's impeachment inquiry that he was alarmed by Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman found Trump's request that Zelensky open an investigation into a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, "inappropriate," and he told the NSC's top lawyer.
A person close to Vindman's legal team told Bloomberg News he has not been told of any change in his status, nor has his twin brother, who also works at the NSC. Some staffers could be cut as soon as Friday, people familiar with the matter said, just two days after Trump was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.
were you in a coma during the 8 years of the Obama presidency? "The left party" has been much more amenable to bipartisanship recently than the right party was back then.
That’s a crock of shit . As much as my party and I hated Obama we weren’t half as stubborn and childish as the left are . We did not straight out say were gonna do everything in our power to try to impeach him . We were much more classy and elegant then the left and one day in the far future god willing I’m sure we will be gracious in defeat aswell like we always are. We obviously don’t jump for joy when we loose but Atleast we know how to deal with it and not cry and try to overturn the people’s choice/voice(yes I know trump lost the popular vote ). Have you any mention of some bills that are actually worth passing that you claim are stuck in the senate ? Or are they just ones like the “green new deal” lol . It’s so funny how stupid AOC sounded when “she” rolled it out . She got it from both ways , not only did she sound stupid but when asked questions she doesn’t know how to answer cuz she’s to stupid to come up with anything it’s her advisors that push her agenda . She legit had the iq of a squirrel . But again I’m sure your to blind or ignorant to accept that fact and it very well is a fact . It’s also great to see how the left is ok with Bloomberg now . Someone that used his wealth and power to rewrite the laws on term limits in New York she has can remain 3 terms . Imagine if a republican did that , he would be dead on arrival but nope since it’s a Democrat it’s all cool lol . Sad times sad times for left
If by impeached you mean removed from office then yes. But since history shows that impeachment doesn’t really mean a lot at all in the end, what’s the point?
Exclusive: Trump’s New War On Wasteful Spending — An Advance Draft Of The President’s Budget To Congress (FY2021)
From Forbes. I'll hide a lot of the details, so as not to flood the thread. But, it's interesting to see him take this on when neither party really has done anything about it in decades.
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President Donald Trump is taking action to declare war on waste.
This week, we reviewed an advance copy of the President’s Budget FY2021 that will be submitted to Congress on Monday, February 10th. The president’s budget includes a bold and detailed chapter on curbing waste, fraud, corruption, and taxpayer abuse.
… [a] bloated Federal Government, with duplicative programs and wasteful spending, remains a critical threat to America’s future.
President’s Budget FY2021 | Chapter: Stopping Wasteful And Unnecessary Spending, page 13
Our organization at OpenTheBooks.com has advocated these goals from the pages of The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. With the national debt standing at $23.2 trillion and annual budget deficits of over $1 trillion, we applaud the president for starting a war on waste.
Here are just three of the non-partisan reforms the president will highlight in his FY2021 budget to Congress:
1. End Improper Year-End Waste. The federal government’s use-it-or-lose-it year-end spending spree has been going on for years. In our recent oversight report, we found $97 billion spent by 67 federal agencies during the final month of fiscal year 2018. In the last week of the fiscal year, $53 billion in contracts went out the door – that’s one in every ten dollars spent in the entire year.
[T]here are currently misaligned incentives... Agencies recognize that if significant balances are left in their accounts at the end of a fiscal year, the Congress will likely reduce their topline budget in future fiscal years.
President’s Budget FY2021 | Chapter: Stopping Wasteful And Unnecessary Spending, page 17
Inflatable games ($42,500), model rockets ($34,000), china tableware ($53,004), alcohol ($308,994), musical instruments ($1.7 million), workout equipment ($9.8 million) and lobster tail and crab ($4.6 million).
$300 million spent on passenger vehicles, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, and snowmobiles.
$462 million spent on public relations, marketing research, and advertising.
$491 million spent on furniture and redecorating federal agencies.
$61.2 billion spent by the Pentagon in the final 30-days of the fiscal year.
Last fall, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) introduced legislation to stop the spending spree (S.1238) — billion dollar binge buying is no way to budget. Now, the president has embraced the issue and his budget cites our work.
2. Putting an End to Improper Payments. Each year, the twenty largest federal agencies admit to mistakenly paying out approximately $140 billion. For example, we found that nearly $1 billion was improperly paid to dead people. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) improperly paid $18.4 billion through the earned income tax program last year.
Since 2005, we found the federal government has improperly paid $1.2 trillion from the U.S. Treasury.
This agenda is focused on new strategies to reduce monetary loss because protecting taxpayer money and making sure it is serving is intended purpose is a fundamental responsibility...
President’s Budget FY2021 | Chapter: Stopping Wasteful And Unnecessary Spending, page 16
Social Security recipients were overpaid by $10 billion. Six million active Social Security numbers belong to people aged 112 and older. However, there are only 40 people in the entire world aged 112 and over.
Medicare & Medicaid improperly paid $85 billion in benefits with over-payments amounting to $67 billion. Administered by HHS, Medicaid admits to overpaying recipients $36 billion. Medicare admits to $31 billion in over-payments.
3. Conducting Oversight of Spending. The Trump administration has already eliminated 31,000 duplicate contracts, saving taxpayers $27 billion since 2017. In the budget, they commit to doing more including comparison shopping, volume discounts, and negotiating better deals.
Federal agencies have traditionally purchased goods and services in a fragmented manner, depriving taxpayers of the benefits of the U.S. Government’s position as the largest buyer in the world.
President’s Budget FY2021 | Chapter: Stopping Wasteful And Unnecessary Spending, page 17
We found that federal waste is a target rich environment. Here are some examples:
NASA’s grounded moon rocket has a $3 billion cost overrun, and the agency spent $1.1 million to “prepare the nations religions for the discovery of extraterrestrial life.”
The Air Force bought $1,200 coffee cups while spending up to $350,000 on the purchases.
The U.S. Census has a cost overrun of $3.3 billion.
Taxpayers funded nearly $20 million for the airport at Martha’s Vineyard.
The president is also targeting duplication and programs that lack federal mandate. Former U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn (R-OK) spearheaded legislation ten years ago to require the U.S. Government Accountability Office to report overlap, duplication, and fragmentation in Federal programs.
While we laud the president’s new war on waste, we encourage him to open new fronts. It’s time the president embraced the full Transparency Revolution.
We advocate a four-point strategy: 1. Open the books with aggressive real-time transparency; 2. Audit and cut the waste – we suggest a five-percent cut to discretionary spending as a first step; 3. Reward bureaucrats who cut their budgets; and, 4. Report the progress to the American people.
Wasteful spending is a bipartisan problem.
Patronage Republicans in Congress have a history of joining Democrats to drain the U.S. Treasury from the left. If the president is going to have credibility in the fight against socialism, he cannot be seen as draining the treasury from the right.
America needs a fiscal superhero. President Trump’s budget sends an important signal he’s gearing up for a fight.
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NOTE - had to break all links to forbes site as the editor still can't handle it as tathra noted earlier. Oddly, other links are accepted.
A copy of an official WH document and an official WH document aren't the same thing. Also Trump has torn up many official documents while in official meetings in the White House when he has had his temper tantrums.
You are leaving out the part where he only gave out the aid after he got caught and was informed that not giving it out could cause problems for him.
Sorry that doesn't count sorry. So
Also the idea that he actually care about corruption is completely laughable and that whole thing about other countries not paying their fair share is bs. It doesn't take into consideration that military aid isn't the only type of aid one country can provide to another. Many European countries provide lots of money to Ukraine
I'm sorry I didn't see anything here related to Russia. Wasn't he a Russian agent or some shit? Are we just going to ignore that that was the narrative force-fed to us for 3 years and amounted to nothing? Excuse me for not taking these new accusations seriously *coughjoebiden*
It’s so funny how stupid AOC sounded when “she” rolled it out . She got it from both ways , not only did she sound stupid but when asked questions she doesn’t know how to answer cuz she’s to stupid to come up with anything it’s her advisors that push her agenda . She legit had the iq of a squirrel .
I'm sorry I didn't see anything here related to Russia. Wasn't he a Russian agent or some shit? Are we just going to ignore that that was the narrative force-fed to us for 3 years and amounted to nothing? Excuse me for not taking these new accusations seriously *coughjoebiden*
And so it begins...
EU ambassador Gordon Sondland, who testified at impeachment got, and Lt. Colonel Vindland, who also testified, were unceremoniously canned today. Vindman’s twin brother was also “let go”.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council who testified during the House impeachment inquiry, was ousted from his job and "escorted out of the White House" on Friday afternoon, his lawyer said. Vindman's twin brother, who also worked for the NSC, was also removed from his post.
"LTC Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth," his attorney, David Pressman, said in a statement. "The truth has cost LTC Alexander Vindman his job, his career and his privacy."
Pressman added that "the most powerful man in the world — buoyed by the silent, the pliable, and the complicit" had "decided to exact revenge" on Vindman, who was removed from his job at the NSC.
Vindman's twin, Yevgeny Vindman, was also escorted from the White House Friday, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News. He was working as a senior lawyer and ethics official for the NSC and did not testify in the impeachment inquiry. The New York Times first reported that Vindman's brother, who's also an Army lieutenant colonel, was fired and removed at the same time.
The Vindman twin, "a decorated Iraq war veteran, was escorted off of the grounds of the White House, suddenly and with no explanation, despite over two decades of loyal service to this country. He deeply regrets that he will not be able to continue his service at the White House," Pressman said.
In slightly older news, Former Ambassador Yovanovitch was the fourth person to step down from the State Department who was related to the impeachment at the beginning of the year.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a central figure in the House impeachment of President Trump, on Thursday warned the public against allowing the U.S. to bec…
Another prosecutor joins Trump-Russia probe An attorney working on the Justice Department's highest-profile money laundering case recently transferred off that assignment in order to join the staff of the special prosecutor investigating the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia, POLITICO...
www.bluelight.org
www.politico.com
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www.nbcnews.com
thehill.com
