If you were ready for some football, then the National Football League’s 2017 season opener on Thursday, September 7, provided quite a tasty first course: The Kansas City Chiefs upset the favored New England Patriots by a final score of 42-27, well outside the 8-point spread that bookmakers offered on the game. Bettors supporting the […]
The Can-Kicking Congress: Business as Usual
In political patois, “kicking the can down the road” connotes procrastination. As long as the proverbial can is kicked “down the road,” rather than picked up, then the proper disposition of the derelict container is put off until some future point in time. And much like the (equally proverbial) kicker’s aversion to taking definitive action on a relatively straightforward task, the U.S. Congress is composed of 535 “can kickers,” given their predilection to avoid taking action until the last possible minute. On Tuesday, September 5, 2017, when the current Congress reconvenes after its annual August recess, it will have less than a month to complete several “must pass” items.
The Cuba Embargo: A Personal Observation
In June, 2017, representatives from a handful of right-leaning organizations, including Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), participated in a “people-to-people” delegation to Cuba. The “educational outreach” trip was arranged by Engage Cuba, “the leading coalition of private companies and organizations working to end the travel and trade embargo on Cuba,” in conjunction with Cuba Educational Travel (CET). Based in Naragansett, Rhode Island, CET is the tour facilitator that has been awarded the necessary licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control “to organize trips to Cuba in full compliance with rules and regulations governing travel to Cuba by individuals under U.S. jurisdiction.”
Congressional Appropriators: Rating the “Third Party”
A practical reality of life on Capitol Hill can be summed up with a saying often attributed to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). In his book, Worth the Fighting for, Sen. McCain writes that, “there are, it is often observed, three parties in Congress, Republicans, Democrats, and appropriators.” Further explained by Barry Popik, a contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary (among others), the saying “means that ‘pork barrel’ spending is nonpartisan.”
Making Unauthorized Spending Wrong Again
As President Donald J. Trump continues his campaign to “Make America Great Again,” Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) will borrow on that theme, as described in the title of this article, by continuing to advocate for reforms of the way that Congress does business. One of the best efforts in this regard is H.R. 2174, Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ (R-Wash.) Unauthorized Spending Accountability (USA) Act, which she introduced on April 26, 2017.
Income Share Agreements: Venture Capital for College Students
To get the gist of an “income share agreement” (ISA), look no further than the title of Kim Clark’s November 16, 2016 article in Money magazine: “Now You Can Sell Shares in Yourself to Pay for College.”
CFP-Bane: Warding Off the Unconstitutional CFPB
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been, since its inception as the brainchild of then-Harvard professor and now Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the nanny state bane of conservatives and free-market champions.
Flake, et al. to POTUS: Veto Earmarks!
On Tuesday, March 7, 2017, at a time when the U.S. House of Representatives is contemplating a return to the “insidious” practice of “earmarking,” U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), joined by a handful of his colleagues, wrote to President Donald J. Trump urging the nation’s chief executive to veto any legislation that includes earmarks. According […]
Earmark Effort Demonstrates Tone-Deafness About Swamp Drainage
On November 16, 2016, eight days after the momentous election of Donald J. Trump as president (with his promise to “drain the swamp”), House Republicans inexplicably contemplated the restoration of earmarks. Fortunately, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) forestalled a vote during a meeting of the Republican Conference, promising instead a thoughtful and transparent discussion about the pros and cons of earmarks during the first quarter of 2017. That date appears to have been moved to the third quarter, following the announcement by House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) that he will hold public hearings and issue recommendations by July 4, 2017.
115th Congress: A New Sheriff (with a Powerful Posse) Has Arrived
For the first time since Democrats turned the Speaker’s gavel over to the Republicans in January 2011, the Pennsylvania Avenue axis of power (the White House at one end of the famous street, and both chambers of Congress at the other) will be under the control of a single party. And for the first time since the 2004 elections, that party will be the Republicans’ “Grand Old Party,” not the Democrats. Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential race completed the trifecta that began in 2010, when Republicans won control of the House of Representatives, followed by the 2014 elections that returned control of the Senate to the GOP.