Taxpayers may be surprised to learn that they are currently bankrolling the retirement plans of profitable, private sector companies. With a record-breaking national debt, a sinking economy, and millions of Americans facing losses to their own retirement accounts, taxpayers should not be on the hook for tens of billions of dollars for private contractor pensions and benefits.
Minibus Drives Savings
On November 18, 2011, President Obama signed the “minibus” appropriations legislation, which contained three fiscal year (FY) appropriations bills: the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies. According to a November 17, 2011 press release by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the legislation decreases spending in these appropriations bills by $7 billion from fiscal year (FY) 2011, and comes in at $98 billion below the president’s budget request.
As GM’s Stock Price Drops, Auto Bailout Cost Goes Up
Wastewatcher, December, 2011
Time to De-friend Bad Federal Contractors
Waste and fraud among federal government contractors and vendors is nothing new. Congress after Congress has tried to put an end to the abuses to no avail. Although the number of contractors added to the Excluded Parties List System (identifying parties excluded from receiving federal contracts and other benefits, usually as a result of fraudulent or improper behavior) has increased in recent years, an October 2010 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that the lack of diligence by several federal agencies to root out waste and fraud is costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
Slash Spending Now!
President Obama was quite clear on his expectations for a deal to raise the debt limit: “The only bottom line that I have is that we have to extend this debt ceiling through the next election, into 2013.” While the President blatantly telegraphed that he cared only about his own reelection rather than taking responsibility for the nation’s fiscal issues, House Republicans offered solutions that would have ensured that lawmakers remained accountable for their actions, instead of simply giving elected officials a pass. However, congressional leaders spun their wheels as they found it impossible to negotiate with a wavering White House.
Multi-Billion Dollar CMS Overpayments Continue
Healthcare, General Waste
The Pig Book is Alive and Well
Congress is supposed to be on a no-pork diet in 2011. After Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) nonbinding one-year earmark moratorium passed in the Senate on November 16, 2010, and as more and more politicians began to speak publicly about the importance of ending pork-barrel spending, longtime earmark opponents like Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) began to think that the earmark era might finally be coming to a close. Those prospects seemed even rosier when President Obama announced that he would veto any bill containing earmarks during his 2011 State of the Union Address.
Don’t Let Trade Adjustment Assistance Block Free Trade
George Bernard Shaw once said that if you laid all the world’s economists end to end, they still would not come to a conclusion. On most issues, from the effects of fiscal stimulus, to ideal tax rates, to the appropriate size of government, he was probably right. For every right-leaning Milton Friedman there has long been an equally leftist John Kenneth Galbraith. But there is one issue on which the vast majority of economists speak with one supportive voice: free trade.
Congress Should Plug the Holes Before It Raises the Roof
As high levels of federal spending persist, the nation is on pace to reach its statutory $14.294 trillion debt limit in mid-May. Debates over whether or not to raise the debt ceiling as well as whether or not to attach provisions to reduce the deficit and debt have ensued. Scare tactics are being employed to compel members of Congress to vote for another increase, or else experience “catastrophic economic consequences” and default on the national debt. Lawmakers face a major dilemma and are gearing up for a fight when Congress reconvenes after the Easter recess.
Tax Dollars Disappear into Black Hole
March is National Black Hole Awareness Month, a perfect time to match science with spending. While scientists continue to identify black holes in the far reaches of space, the closest and most deadly vortex is the nation’s $14.3 trillion national debt. Indeed, there are striking similarities between the astronomical black holes and the fiscal abyss facing the United States.