NLRB: White House Muzzled Us In Budget Debate

[ReggieVeggie]

story by Ryan Grim:

WASHINGTON -- When House Republicans targeted the budget of the National Labor Relations Board last month, the agency shot back, warning that such cuts would force it to largely cease operations for an extended period of time, creating a backlog of thousands of cases.

It was one of the few counterattacks from the Obama administration, which was otherwise busy proposing its own cuts and endorsing the Republican call for slashing spending -- and it didn't last long. The White House demanded that the NLRB scrub the statement defending the agency from its website, an NLRB spokesperson told The Huffington Post.

The link to the statement, issued Feb. 18, can still be found on the website, under the heading: "Top NLRB officials respond to House budget proposal." But click through and a new statement, dated Feb. 22, appears: "The content in this statement has been removed. For further information on this subject, please see the President's Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) regarding the budget, which can be found on the OMB website."

The Office of Management and Budget, an arm of the White House, reached out to the NLRB and told the agency to back off and take down the statement, according to the NLRB spokesperson.

OMB spokeswoman Meg Reilly said it is the job of the White House to comment on legislation. "Administration positions on proposed legislation are provided by the White House," Reilly told HuffPost in a statement in response to the NLRB charge. "However, Agencies are welcome to work with members of the public, press and Congress to provide factual information about implications of proposed legislation."

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/09/nlrb-white-house-muzzled-_n_833354.html

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Change we should NEVER have believed in.

[yurbud]

2. capitulation republicans can count on

[sabrina 1]

3. And I thought they were so busy doing stuff to help the people,

that they didn't even time to prosecute War Criminals and Wall St. criminals. They said they had to look forward, as there was so much to do and prosecuting criminals would just slow them down.

But they have time to micro-manage any organization that actually is working for the people? Talk about control. I thought only Republicans did this kind of thing.

This is the third report of the WH using their position to silence people. But why does anyone listen to them? I don't get it, just tell them to mind their own business??

Same thing when they yelled at liberal orgs for running ads against Blue Dogs and promoting real progressives. They too backed down. Why?

Not to mention their attempt to protect the Bush War criminals from prosecution in Spain. It seems to me they have a lot of time to waste after all.

IS there anyone around with any backbone willing to stand up for the American people, anywhere?

[pacalo]

4. Oh my.

[ReggieVeggie]

5. kick

[PurityOfEssence]

6. Our President knows, just KNOWS that if we don't anger the Republicans, someday they'll love him...

There's a difference between not fighting and actively keeping your people from fighting.

[Doctor_J]

7. Can one of the apologists jump in here and spin this for me?

On most of these bulletins I can sort of envision the White House's BS even though it's crap. But this one has me completely stumped. Has he abandoned us completely, and is just waiting until the campaign to change his official party registration to (R)?