In July 2016, Frederick County (Maryland) Executive Jan Gardner introduced a bill that would increase the county’s hotel tax from 3 percent to 5 percent. Despite denials from Gardner, State Senator Ron Young (D-District 3), State Delegate Karen Young (D-District 3), and State Delegate Carol Crimm (D-District 3) that the new tax revenue will not be used to fund certain aspects of a planned $84 million Downtown Frederick Hotel and Conference Center, that does not appear to true. Part of the revenue generated from the hotel tax hike will pay down the $3.5 million in debt payments for the conference center over the course of a 25-year contract.
Pharmaceutical Transparency Legislation – Sounds Good but Foolhardy
Legislation to create “transparency” in drug costs has been introduced in dozens of state legislatures across the country, purportedly to understand how prescription drugs are priced. While details vary from state to state, all the bills would require pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide reams of pricing and cost data, much of it proprietary, to state officials. […]
New Bill Opens Discussion on Music Rights
On April 5, 2017, Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) introduced H.R. 1914, the Performance Royalty Owners of Music Opportunity To Earn Act of 2017 (PROMOTE Act). This legislation would grant sound recording copyright owners the exclusive right to prohibit the broadcast transmission of sound recordings by means of terrestrial radio stations. While […]
Waste Abounds in the Land of the Midnight Sun
On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a hearing to consider the construction of a road linking the town of King Cove to Cold Bay, and the latter’s all-weather airport. At issue is H.R. 218, introduced by Federal Lands Subcommittee member Don Young (R-Alaska) in January 2017, which […]
Big Pharma DOES Negotiate Drug Prices
On March 7, 2017, President Trump tweeted he was “working on a new system where there will be competition in the Drug Industry. Pricing for the American people will come way down.” The next day, in a meeting with Representatives Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) , the president reiterated that he wanted to […]
Restoring State Authority for Lifeline
In another sign of better times for taxpayers and consumers at the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Ajit Pai is taking steps to address jurisdictional problems created by his predecessor, Tom Wheeler, regarding the Lifeline program. Citizens Against Government Waste has long reported on problems with the program, which is supposed to provide low-income households with […]
The Sky Is Clearing, Not Falling, on Internet Privacy
The hysteria and hyperbole about online privacy needs to stop following House passage of S. J. Res. 34, which invoked the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to rescind the Federal Communications Commission’s Privacy Order. The legislation simply begins to restore the status quo for privacy rules that had been in place for decades prior to the […]
Obamacare Still Vulnerable to Fraud
Even before Congress failed to pass a repeal and replacement for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), a November 2016 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report again exposed rampant and systematic fraud in the application process.
America First, Duplicative Programs Last
On March 16, 2017, the White House released its budget, “America First – A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.” This “skinny budget” increases spending for defense by $54 billion and cuts an equal amount of money for duplicative and wasteful programs. The budget calls also cuts burdensome regulations and calls for better management of federal programs.
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.