Washington, D.C. – Once again, as All Hallow’s Eve approaches (and we don’t mean the election!), Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) dispatches its list of Taxpayer Tricks and Treats.  The horrifying spectacle of bloated, blob-like government spending continues to frighten all Americans.

Trick:  The Haunted Housing Bailout Bill gets marquis billing as the worst trick perpetrated on taxpayers this year, as it opened the way to a toxic brew of bills that have turned into a fiscal Nightmare on Main Street.  After dipping its toe in to salvage Bear Stearns ($30 billion), and AIG ($85 billion), as well as stepping in to stanch the flow of blood at Fannie Mae and “Freddie Kreuger” Mac in the housing bailout bill, the U.S. Treasury Department and Congress shoved the taxpayers completely underwater with a $700 billion bailout of the entire banking industry.  The specter of a nationalized banking and mortgage industry sucking the life’s blood of taxpayers will draw more socialist vampires to Washington for decades to come.

Treat:  Once again, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) gets the undying gratitude of the taxpayers for successfully blocking passage of a grotesquely wasteful collection of spending bills masquerading as serious legislation.  The bill, sarcastically dubbed the Senate “Tomnibus,” was a monster mash-up of bills which would have created 36 new spending programs worth about $10 billion, all of it unpaid for with spending reductions in other areas.  In late September, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tried to jam the whole Frankenstein-like package through, but Dr. Coburn was able to block it, at least for now.  However, the undead do come back again and again.  Sen. Reid is threatening to use the upcoming congressional lame duck session to take another stab at the bill.  Keep the garlic handy.

Trick:  The federal budget deficit reached a record $455 billion in fiscal year 2008 and is likely to more than double to $1 trillion in fiscal year 2009.  Congress’s reaction to the bad news is to propose spending increases and a $300 billion “stimulus” bill instead of taking a Texas-sized chainsaw to the plethora of federal government programs that are outdated and wasteful.  Spending in fiscal year 2008 went up by 9.1 percent, the largest increase since a 9.6. jump in 1990.  Revenue dropped by 1.2 percent, the first time since 2003 that the government received less than the prior year.

Treat:  Justice has been dispensed in the case of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).  On October 27, the 40-year veteran of the Senate was found guilty of seven counts of failing to report gifts.  The senator has been a ravenous porker for his entire career and has been CAGW’s top porker for 10 of the last 12 years.  No date has been set for sentencing, but on behalf of taxpayers, who deserve retribution for the loss of tens of billions of dollars in wasteful pork-barrel spending in Alaska, we suggest an eternity walled up in the catacombs beneath Washington, D.C. with a nice cask of Amontillado.

Trick:  CAGW’s October Porker of the Month, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, squandered $355,000 of the taxpayers’ money to sponsor a NASCAR driver from his home state of North Carolina.  This may be part of a diabolical plot to run for Senate or governor after the next president pulls the plug on his tenure.  The ill-fated car, which crashed in its first race, was supposed to draw attention to the switch to digital television in February, 2009.

Treat:  The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste’s 2007 Congressional Ratings highlighted the stellar voting records of the three Taxpayer Super Heroes with a score of 100 percent:  Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), and F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.).  Taxpayer Heroes are members who scored between 80 and 99 percent.  The total number of Heroes in the House increased from 39 in 2006 to 59 in 2007.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.