Obama's daughter recognizes successful spending

Spending is a problem that’s getting a lot of attention this week.

The House is debating a continuing resolution for fiscal 2011, and House Republican leaders say they will cut spending. Earlier in the week, President Barack Obama issued a fiscal 2012 budget proposal with cuts in many areas, including terminating poorly managed programs. And the Government Accountability Office released its 2011 High Risk List, pointing to bad management among particular agencies.

Government spending and poor management are grim issues, but Andrew Moylan, vice president of government affairs for the National Taxpayers Union, tried to lighten the mood of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on waste by citing a joke from a late-night talk show.

“The president took his daughters to see the movie, 'Avatar,' and when it was done, one daughter told her dad, ‘Now that’s how you spend a half a billion dollars,’” Moylan said.

Let’s see if Congress and Obama can do better than "Avatar" auteur James Cameron.