Building a Better Government

I've got a wicked bad head cold that has been totally kicking my butt for the last couple of days and our political discourse is so absurd at this point that I can barely bring myself to blog but this story is a bit cheering. For all the blame that Obama gets for not fixing things quickly enough, there's these little signs that at least under this administration, they're willing to try to contain costs and operate more efficiently.

The Office of Management and Budget launched the SAVE Award in September, an effort to solicit cost-savings ideas from rank-and-file federal employees. The agency received more than 38,000 submissions from workers, and the White House announced the four finalists Monday. The OMB is still calculating the total potential cost savings from each of the ideas.

The four finalists suggest using local banks, consolidating inspections, utilizing on-line resources for appointment setting and allowing vets to take home their unused medications from hospital stays at the VA. Small ideas, that translated over the system could save some big bucks. Apparently you can vote for your favorite at SAVEAward.gov and the winner gets to meet the President. However today is the last day of voting and it's likely all the finalists ideas will be implemented, so the taxpayer wins, no matter what.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]