Questioned by Congress? Try to share the fun.
There is no place that people are more willing to share than at the witness table in front of a congressional committee.
When a fellow witness before a congressional committee sits by quietly without one question to answer and you’re taking the heat on a subject—say, sequestration of federal money—you don’t want to hog all the attention, right?
Danny Werfel, controller of the Office of Federal Financial Management at the Office of Management and Budget, must be a generous guy. He was under questioning by the House Budget Committee April 25 about the looming sequester and what the president planned to do about it while the Government Accountability Office’s Deputy General Counsel Susan Poling was asked essentially nothing.
Werfel, presumably wanting to share the fun, tried to direct a question about taxes to Poling.
Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) asked him about taxes in the president budget proposal, but he was out of Werfel’s line of sight.
“I can’t see you and I want to make sure you’re directing the question to me,” he told the congressman, while gesturing toward Poling.
It didn’t work.
“Well, I thought I’d give it a try,” he said.