THE LAST WORD

The president went before the cameras to say he has ordered his Cabinet secretaries to cut $100 million from their budgets as a sign of solidarity with a nation that has had to take 'extraordinary steps in order to shore up our financial system.

Critics immediately jumped on Obama's $100 million cost-cutting plan as being too puny....

The good part is one of the examples the president gave of the innovative, new-wave, cutting-edge, sharp-as-a-tack, out-of-the-box thinking that one member of his Cabinet has already come up with. Janet Napolitano at the Department of Homeland Security estimates that they can save up to $52 million over five years just by purchasing office supplies in bulk, the president said proudly.

To which I say: You mean the U.S. government DOES NOT CURRENTLY BUY ITS OFFICE SUPPLIES IN BULK? What does the government do? Send a guy down to the store every time it needs a ream of copier paper?

Until Monday, did nobody in the Obama administration know that you could negotiate a little discount by buying, say, 10 million or 12 million reams at a time?

Where is Rahm? Rahm Emanuel could negotiate the spots off a leopard! Why is he not being used to his fullest capacity? Let Rahm be Rahm! OK, so he has been busy.

But has nobody in the federal government ever shopped at Costco or Sam's Club? Do they not have a pantry like I do filled with one dozen 3-pound jars of extra-crunchy peanut butter and two dozen jars of dill pickles because you can get them cheaper that way?

Hasn't buying in bulk been going on for a long time in this country? I think George Washington bought blankets in bulk for the troops at Valley Forge. Where did we lose this skill? No matter. In the future, because of Janet Napolitano ... our executive branch will buy its office supplies in bulk. Maybe Staples will even throw in a dozen free Sharpies."

--columnist Roger Simon