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.
The Fannie and Freddie Meltdown: Picking Up PACE
On September 6, 2008, the nation’s two largest housing government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken under conservatorship by the U.S. Treasury.
Playing Politics with The Anthrax Vaccine
The anthrax attacks of October, 2001 may seem like a distant memory to many Americans, but the incidents created widespread alarm, prompting a debate within the U.S. government over how to better protect the nation from the critical threat of chemical and biological weapons attacks.
The Ongoing Farce of the “Emergency Supplementals”
As the House of Representatives rushed to finish legislative business in advance of the Memorial Day recess, the fate of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010Supplemental Appropriations Bill was pushed off until lawmakers returnon June 8. The bill allocates $37.5 billion to support ongoing war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unfortunately, it also piles on tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for dozens of non-emergency items, all of which add to the $1.56 trillion annual deficit and the national debt, which topped $13 trillion on May 25, 2010, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Stimulus Rebellion on the Eastern Shore
There is a brawl brewing in the bucolic fields of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. The Obama Administration’s $862 billion stimulus fund, ostensibly targeted toward shovel-ready, jobs-producing projects, is going toward the construction of a decidedly non-shovel-ready 2,000-acre U.S. State Department security training facility that residents in the region neither need nor want. This tiny band of committed activists, comprised of Republicans, Democrats, private property rights advocates, conservationists, and small business owners, may go down in history as one of the only communities in the country to successfully reject a wasteful stimulus pork project.
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul – Trying to Track Stimulus Money Robs Oversight of Other Federal Spending
By now, news stories related to the difficulty in tracking expenditures related to the “stimulus” spending package, or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and estimating jobs “created,” “retained,” or simply “funded” by the bill are legion, legendary; old news, in fact. President Obama swore that his administration would track “every dime” of the $862 billion spending bill. The federal government dedicated an $18 million website, www.recovery.gov., to the task of chasing down the dollars.
Pulling the Plug on Yucca Mountain – A New Mountain of Waste
The 27-year saga of the nation’s permanent underground nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada continues. After taking office in January, 2009, President Obama made good on his rash campaign promise to shutter the site, located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – The Voldemort(s) of the Financial Crisis
On January 13, 2010, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) launched a year-long probe on the financial crisis with two days of hearings, starting with testimony from the CEOs of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley. It is not clear whether the hearings and the subsequent report will be an authentic “teachable moment” or just another in a long line of show trials masquerading as serious congressional inquiries, but the early signs don’t look promising.
Weatherization: More Clouds on the Horizon
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the so-called stimulus package, continues to be a source of contention and controversy as the end of 2009 approaches. When Congress first considered the $787 billion legislation, CAGW expressed grave concerns about the entire plan, especially those programs which received massive increases in their budgets.