Taxpayers are both in awe of and enraged by the schizophrenic behavior of government officials and lawmakers when it comes to taking action on the nation’s thorniest public policy conundrums. Over and over, taxpayers hear the rhetoric emanating from Washington urging opportune and commonsense action to solve a host of public policy issues and then watch, with horror, as the administration and members of Congress fail to turn that lofty rhetoric into forward-moving action; instead, they often make matters even worse. The evolution of reform efforts vis-a-vis the nation’s housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is a perfect case study in that phenomenon.
Solyndra Scorches Taxpayers
It is a shame that the Obama administration didn’t pay as much attention to the details of Solyndra’s business plans and financial liabilities as it did to the details of the President’s photo op at the company’s facility on May 26, 2010. Given the rampant mismanagement and weaknesses associated with the Energy Department’s whole Loan Guarantee Program (LGP), there was plenty of incentive to do so.
Draft Dairy Reforms Would Hurt Consumers, Add Bureaucracy and Increase Taxes
Draft legislation by House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) proposes new dairy programs that will cost thousands of jobs and increase the price of milk and other dairy products. With high unemployment levels and families struggling to make ends meet, this is not what the nation needs.
Congress and GSE Reform: “Ready, Fire, Aim”?
Home sales are still abysmal and are expected to fall further. Foreclosures continue unabated, no end in sight. According to RealtyTrac, “there are 872,000 homes that have been repossessed by lenders, but have yet to be sold.” Sales of distressed homes, properties already owned by banks or in some stage of foreclosure, have slipped lower, and there is talk among the financial services experts of a double dip in the housing market.
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.
Weatherization–More Money, Blowin’ in the Wind
February 17, 2011 marked the two-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the so-called stimulus package. Needless to say, the contrived celebratory fanfare that characterized the one-year anniversary last year has now given way to the dull realization that the $862 billion program has been an abject failure. The oft-repeated promise that the stimulus money would be tracked to the very last dime has become the butt of late-night talk shows and taxpayers are left to wonder where all the money went.
Federal Housing Administration: The Next Big Fannie?
In the upcoming session of the 112th Congress, lawmakers will be faced with the daunting challenge of what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation’s two mortgage giants. These government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have been under conservatorship since September, 2008 and they have sponged up $150 billion in taxpayer bailout money to date. The CBO estimates that the bailout will cost $380 billion, more than three times the cost to taxpayers of the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s.
Pension Precipice
It is time to stare the brutal facts in the face.
Pork Alert Roundup: Recess Edition
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.
The Great Unraveling Continues…
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.