Now THIS is change I can believe in

[DavidS]

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Obama Tightens Ethics, Lobbying Rules, Freezes Pay of Staff

By Roger Runningen

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he’s freezing the pay of senior White House staff and imposing new restrictions on interactions between administration officials and lobbyists.

Obama also said he would issue an order that makes it easier for the public to get government documents.

“We are here as public servants, and public service is a privilege,” Obama said, addressing his White House staff and Cabinet on his first full day in office. “It’s not about advancing yourself or your corporate clients.”

The president said that when top White House aides leave government, they are barred from lobbying “for as long as I am president, and there will be a ban on gifts by lobbyists to anyone serving in the administration.”

Regarding the pay freeze, Obama said he is acting because “families are tightening their belts and so should Washington.”

 

[del]

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Obama Tightens Ethics, Lobbying Rules, Freezes Pay of Staff

By Roger Runningen

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he’s freezing the pay of senior White House staff and imposing new restrictions on interactions between administration officials and lobbyists.

Obama also said he would issue an order that makes it easier for the public to get government documents.

“We are here as public servants, and public service is a privilege,” Obama said, addressing his White House staff and Cabinet on his first full day in office. “It’s not about advancing yourself or your corporate clients.”

The president said that when top White House aides leave government, they are barred from lobbying “for as long as I am president, and there will be a ban on gifts by lobbyists to anyone serving in the administration.”

Regarding the pay freeze, Obama said he is acting because “families are tightening their belts and so should Washington.”

yeah, nobody will figure a way around it.
good for him for saying it, but i doubt very much he believes it'll happen any more than i do.

 

[RodISHI]

One can "hope" he means what he says.

 

[del]

One can "hope" he means what he says.

i'll take him at his word, but i just don't see it working at all.
unenforceable, IMO.

 

[Lycurgus]

I certainly have no problem with the above. I agree, let's see it all enforced. Maybe he paid attention to Gates, again, no problem with that either.

 

[rayboyusmc]

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's first public act in office Wednesday was to institute new limits on lobbyists in his White House and to freeze the salaries of high-paid aides, in a nod to the country's economic turmoil.

Announcing the moves while attending a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to swear in his staff, Obama said the steps "represent a clean break from business as usual."

The pay freeze, first reported by The Associated Press, would hold salaries at their current levels for the roughly 100 White House employees who make over $100,000 a year. "Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington," said the new president, taking office amid startlingly bad economic times that many fear will grow worse.

Those affected by the freeze include the high-profile jobs of White House chief of staff, national security adviser and press secretary. Other aides who work in relative anonymity also would fit into that cap if Obama follows a structure similar to the one George W. Bush set up.

Obama's new lobbying rules will not only ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. Those already hired will be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted.

The rules also ban lobbyists from giving gifts of any size to any member of his administration. It wasn't immediately clear whether the ban would include the traditional "previous relationships" clause, allowing gifts from friends or associates with which an employee comes in with strong ties.

The new rules also require that anyone who leaves his administration is not allowed to try to influence former friends and colleagues for at least two years. Obama is requiring all staff to attend to an ethics briefing like one he said he attended last week.

Obama freezes salaries of some White House aides - Yahoo! News

merged with existing thread

 

[Lycurgus]

Yeah gayboy, pluck a feather from ur ass and put it in your cap!

Not bad for his first public move.

 

[Avatar4321]

oh and what's he going to do when they sell their influence to the highest bidder?

 

[Zoom-boing]

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Obama Tightens Ethics, Lobbying Rules, Freezes Pay of Staff

By Roger Runningen

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he’s freezing the pay of senior White House staff and imposing new restrictions on interactions between administration officials and lobbyists.

Obama also said he would issue an order that makes it easier for the public to get government documents.

“We are here as public servants, and public service is a privilege,” Obama said, addressing his White House staff and Cabinet on his first full day in office. “It’s not about advancing yourself or your corporate clients.”

The president said that when top White House aides leave government, they are barred from lobbying “for as long as I am president, and there will be a ban on gifts by lobbyists to anyone serving in the administration.”

Regarding the pay freeze, Obama said he is acting because “families are tightening their belts and so should Washington.”

I have no problem with this and would like to see alot more belt-tightening in Washington.

 

[sealybobo]

yeah, nobody will figure a way around it.
good for him for saying it, but i doubt very much he believes it'll happen any more than i do.

You guys are soooooooooooo negative. It is sad.

You didn't believe Bush was evil even though he proved it time and time again. (not stupid, evil)

And you won't give Obama props, even though he is going to earn/deserve your respect.

No biggy though, because he'll win in a landslide despite you knuckleheads.

This site is going to become boring. Obama will be great and you will admit it and then we won't have anything to talk about.

Oh well. There's always god, gays and guns.

And maybe Obama will receive a blowjob and then you can have something to cry about. Jealous virgins.

 

[rayboyusmc]

True, no matter what he does or accomplished, he will be shit in their opinion, and no matter how many real patriots give their lifes in Iraq for Bush's dreams, he will be a good president.

Yeah gayboy, pluck a feather from ur ass and put it in your cap!

Such a bitter person. I mentioned he did the right thing and you piss and moan. FYATHYRIO

 

[sealybobo]

True, no matter what he does or accomplished, he will be shit in their opinion, and no matter how many real patriots give their lifes in Iraq for Bush's dreams, he will be a good president.




Such a bitter person. I mentioned he did the right thing and you piss and moan. FYATHYRIO

I have doubters in my office all coming over excited about what Obama has done on day one.

Fuck these nay sayers. They're going to look so stupid bashing Obama the next 4 years.

 

[Zoom-boing]

I have doubters in my office all coming over excited about what Obama has done on day one.

Fuck these nay sayers. They're going to look so stupid bashing Obama the next 4 years.

He will do things that are right, he will do things that are wrong, he will make good decisions, he will make piss-poor decisions -- just like every other president. You should take him off that pedestal; he is not a god, he is mere mortal.

 

[WillowTree]

I'll believe he means to change the ethics in Washington when he hauls Geitner, Wrangel, Dodd up before the ethics committee and runs their criminal asses outta Dodge! Then we will have actual CHANGE we can believe in.

 

[Tech_Esq]

Pardon me for not slobbering all over myself because he said he was going to be ethical. They all say they are going to be ethical and "run the most ethical administration in history" right before they invent new and different unethical behavior to stun and appall us all.

At any rate we're still cleaning up the puddles of slobber from all the Obama-ites here yesterday, the last thing we need is more.

 

[Amanda]

I think it's a good start. I don't see any reason to be down on him for trying to do good things. I don't think that's the right attitude at all.

 

[garyd]

Typically left form over substance crap. Get back to me when he throws Al Gore down the front steps when he shows up to pitch that global warming crap.

 

[Shadow]

I'll believe he means to change the ethics in Washington when he hauls Geitner, Wrangel, Dodd up before the ethics committee and runs their criminal asses outta Dodge! Then we will have actual CHANGE we can believe in.

You forgot Barney Frank..then again if Obama did that he would have add himself to the list..

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

Pardon me for not slobbering all over myself because he said he was going to be ethical. They all say they are going to be ethical and "run the most ethical administration in history" right before they invent new and different unethical behavior to stun and appall us all.

At any rate we're still cleaning up the puddles of slobber from all the Obama-ites here yesterday, the last thing we need is more.

Indeedy!

I well remember the Clinton pledge to run the 'most ethical administration in history' ... but who really believed that a criminal of the highest order was really serious about it? Sure as hell not me and not so much has changed that I'm going to believe a Chicago politician whose politicla career rest upon the shoulders of domestic terrorists.

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

I don't think ... at all.

Well said... Bravo... BRAVO! Exceptional insight...