
A Monthly Dispatch from Citizens
Against Government Waste
The Great Unraveling Continues…
by: Leslie K. Paige
The new summer blockbuster “Inception” features spectacular special effect sequences of towering edifices exploding, crumbling, and otherwise disintegrating in a film that addresses the fine line between reality and a dream state. Right before the film’s protagonists emerge from medically-induced dream states, they experience instability, turbulence, and ultimately the total collapse of their immediate physical environments. These sequences, which are awesome to behold on the big screen, are reminiscent of what is happening now in the real world with regard to the fiscal projections made about President Obama’s healthcare bill, only a lot less entertaining.
The “Razorback Subsidy” is a Whole Different Kind of Disaster for Taxpayers
by: MacMillin Slobodien
President Obama needs to pass a bill, but a powerful chairwoman of a Senate committee, who is in danger of not being reelected, adds a controversial and expensive provision that puts passage in jeopardy. Conventional wisdom says that the White House cuts a deal. And, unfortunately, that is exactly what happened at the end of July, when the White House told the Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) that they would still help her obtain $1.5 billion in farm disaster aid if she promised to remove language funding the program from a small business bill.
Spending Revolt Bus Across America
by: Dave Williams
Fed up with excessive government spending, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), Americans for Prosperity, the 60 Plus Association, Concerned Women for America, and AmericaSpeakOn.org have joined forces to create a new website, www.spendingrevolt.com and go on a multi-state bus tour to educate and activate taxpayers. The wake-up tour is intended to arm Americans with facts and figures about government spending so they can change their spending habits in Washington. The bus measures 70 feet long and has space for people to write “personal messages” to their elected officials.
Pork Alert Roundup: Recess Edition
by: Sean Kennedy
In recent years, Congress has been unable to complete the appropriations process by the start of the new fiscal year (FY), which occurs on October 1. Unfortunately, this year will not be an exception. However, there is positive news to report, as the ban on earmarks directed to for-profit companies announced by House Democrats on March 10, 2010 and the moratorium on all earmarks by House Republicans the next day has had a noticeable effect on the appropriations process. In the eight House appropriations bills approved by subcommittees prior to the August recess, Citizens Against Government Waste found that dollar totals for earmarks decreased by 29 percent, from a total of $2,762,800 in FY 2010 to $1,961,290,000 in the same bills in FY 2011. Projects declined by 47.8 percent, from 4,677 in FY 2010 to 2,442 in FY 2011.
Government Broadband Deployment Report Card: F
by: Dave Williams
To say that the Internet has grown over the past 15 years is an understatement. According to Internet World Stats, there were 16 million users in 1995 compared to 1.9 billion users in June, 2010, an increase of 11,775 percent. In addition, the Internet is much faster as a result of the deployment of broadband, and its uses have also expanded exponentially.