Before the 113th Congress left town in early August for their five-week “summer recess,” they kicked yet another can down the road. On the one hand, it wasn’t time-sensitive enough that action couldn’t wait until their return on September 9. On the other, because of the hoopla surrounding it before their departure, they left themselves […]
Lame Brain Drain
I am not suggesting that the Congressional staffers who may be seeking greener career pastures (due to changes in health care benefits) are “lame brains;” however, if they are responsible for most of the madness that emanates from Capitol Hill, I may have to reassess. Rather, the much-ballyhooed, “sky-is-falling” brouhaha over the potential for intellectual […]
A Diller, A Dollar, A Cost-Saving Scholar
On Monday, July 22nd, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) co-hosted a lunch briefing with the Dollar Coin Alliance (DCA), of which CCAGW is a member. The purpose of the briefing was twofold: first, to reiterate the benefits and considerable cost savings to be realized by a transition from the dollar bill to […]
SIRF’s Up!
Unfortunately, the title does not refer to the ideal sea conditions preferred by surfers . Instead, the acronym SIRF stands for “Stolen Identity Refund Fraud,” a crime that is rising in Florida and beyond, to include nearby Georgia and farther-away Michigan. Given the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS’) apparent inability to prevent this crime in the […]
Crony “Cropitalism”
Green Acres, a zany television sitcom that aired on CBS from 1965 to 1971, featured the antics of a former New York City attorney, Oliver Wendell Douglas (portrayed with stuffy effectiveness by Eddie Albert), and his ditzy, socialite wife, Lisa (played by the lovely Eva Gabor), who have invested their wealth into a dilapidated farmhouse and the equally dysfunctional farm on which it sits. The highfalutin city dwellers have moved to rural Hooterville, a surreal community of country bumpkins where everyday rules of common sense just don’t seem to apply. In fact, one episode featured a storyline in which the townfolk were convinced that they could receive tax refunds without ever having paid taxes: to Oliver’s bewilderment, they did.
Farm Bill, Part 2: Divide (the Bill) and Conquer (the Conservatives?)
Rep. Frank D. Lucas (R-Okla.), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has proposed a strategy to move the chamber’s recently failed 2013 Farm Bill forward to passage by the House and on to conference with the Senate’s already passed version. Stung by the unprecedented defeat of a recurring piece of legislation once considered “must pass” […]
What “Big Daddy” Unruh Would Say About “Big Sugar”
The late Jesse Unruh – the colorful former Speaker of the California State Assembly and supposedly nicknamed “Big Daddy” either by bombshell Raquel Welch or after Tennessee Williams’ patriarch in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (depending on which urban legend you prefer) – was famous for many things, not the least of which was […]
The ESPC Zone: Everyone Scores on Energy Efficiency
To the untrained ear, subjects like “Green this” and “LEED-certified that” might be expected to turn off the typical Republican, according to those who buy into the stereotype that those whose politics are right-of-center are disinterested in anything considered “environmentally conscious.” On the flip side, that same untrained ear might expect doctrinaire Democrats to balk at any profit-motivated business solution to significant government problems. But Reps. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) are managing to shred these paper tigers, without abandoning their respective ideological credentials. With a little help from their friends, Rep. Gardner and 11 more House Republicans have joined with Rep. Welch and 15 of his Democratic colleagues in forming the House Energy Savings Performance Caucus.
The Farmers Love This Bill
“The farmers love this bill, The farmers love this bill, High, HIGH, the dairies go, The farmers love this bill!” While it’s a tortured version of the original, the verse scribbled above represents a more fitting rendition of the classic nursery rhyme these days, given ongoing congressional action. Today, the Senate will markup its version (S. […]
Bi-, Bi-, Biennial Budgeting!
While not as entertaining as “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” the bobby-soxer romp of the early 1960s, biennial budgeting represents a refreshing change-of-pace from the dour melodrama that Congress’ current fiscal discourse has become. On March 22, 2013, Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) scored a preliminary victory on the issue when the Senate voted 68-31 in favor of their amendment (S. Amdt. 138) to the Senate’s first-in-four-years budget resolution. The Isakson-Shaheen effort provides a matinee preview to their legislation, S. 554, the Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, that would be needed to implement the recommendations included in the upper chamber’s budget resolution, which does not carry the force of law.