Washington DC - An of-the-cuff criticism by SPeaker of the House John Boener has led to a massive government modernization proposal by the Obama administration.
Speaking to reporters concerning Obama's decision to resume military tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay naval facility Boehner was reported to comment, "even broken clocks are right twice a day."
That immediately created a sense of urgency within the White House that is particularly sensitive to negative portrayals of the president to the press by his critics. The result was a survey of all timekeeping devices within the federal executive departments.
That survey, in turn, revealed that many of the mechanical clocks within various government agencies had in fact stopped working.
"We simply cannot serve the American people with the outdated clocks we inherited," noted press secretary Jay Carney. "The president has decided this program is the right program at the right time."
With the political winds at their back the administration has proposed a $60 billion effort to replace all broken mechanical clocks with non-functioning digital clocks.
"We need to let the American people we serve them with only the highest technological inoperative equipment their tax dollars can buy," Mr. Carney stated. "I think it is what they've come to expect from their government and this is the administration to bring it to them."
