NEWT GINGRICH on the FAA and sequestration:

Americans are exactly right to doubt government is doing everything it can to use taxpayers’ money effectively. When in recent years the Army hired private-sector experts in a cost cutting method called Lean Six Sigma, it reduced costs by approximately $22 billion, mostly eliminating waste in its supply chain.

The rest of the federal government could surely show a little more initiative in distinguishing the critical expenditures from those that can wait.

Take for example the Department of Transportation. As the Wall Street Journal noted this week, the DOT posted an announcement on its homepage Monday about the nearly half-billion dollars in funding for an initiative to help “make communities more livable and sustainable.” The program, designed to fund “projects that will have a significant impact on the nation,” originated as part of the stimulus package in 2009.

Apparently a functioning air traffic control system does not qualify as such a project. At least, it seems the Department of Transportation saw no contradiction between the announcement that more stimulus-style funding was available and the administration’s insistence that nothing could be done to avoid the air traffic control delays.

In fact, the amount allocated to this one program alone would make up for most of the sequester reduction at the FAA.

Read it all.