No department or agency in the federal government is immune from the bureaucratic toxin of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Ironically, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is responsible for cleaning up all kinds of sewage, sludge, and foul matter, has consistently been one of the most wasteful agencies. EPA officials have so consistently mismanaged and squandered the taxpayers’ money in 2016 that this year alone should serve as a teachable moment for other federal agencies.
Return to Sender: The Postal Service Reform Act of 2016
Even to the most neutral observer, the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) financial condition is dire. Notwithstanding it $18 billion annual advantage over other private sector companies (exemption from income; state local sales; and property tax exemption; power of eminent domain; monopoly control over mailboxes; and a $15 billion line of credit from the U.S. Treasury) the USPS has posted more than $50 billion in losses since 2007 and faces $125 billion in unfunded liabilities. Regardless of how the USPS arrived at this position, there is a broad consensus that reform is needed.
A Pathway to Change at the IRS
Because of the delicate, private, and proprietary nature of information provided by individuals and businesses to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on tax returns, audits are an inherently governmental function that should be conducted solely by government employees. This confidential process should not be handed over to outside individuals or organizations. However, that is exactly the situation that Microsoft Corporation found itself in May 2014, when the IRS decided to hire an outside litigation firm to conduct an audit of the company’s international division, and then proscriptively issued regulations allowing the agency to take such action.
Inspector General: “Image is Everything” and USPS Facilities are Lacking
On August 29, 2016, the Office of the Inspector General (IG) for the United States Postal Service (USPS) released an audit report on USPS facilities in the Capital Metro Area. The Capital Metro Area, which includes Atlanta, Baltimore, Greensboro, Richmond, and surrounding areas, is home to 2,600 postal facilities (USPS leases and owns more than […]
Deep Sixing Taxpayer Dollars with Miners’ Pension Bailout?
So this is Sen. Manchin’s (D-West Virginia) solution to the demise of the coal mining industry? Let’s review: This administration, run by one of Manchin’s own party and enthusiasctially supported by other prominent Democrats like VP Joe Biden and presidential hopeful and former NY Senator Hillary Clinton, attacked and killed a whole industry with complete disregard […]
Donald Trump Commits to Several CAGW-Endorsed Reforms to Eliminate Government Waste
At a speech to the Union League in Philadelphia today, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump committed to several government-wide reforms that could save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars:
The God of Communications is Alive and Well at the FCC
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler is doing his best to emulate Mercury, the God of Communications, whose portfolio also covered commerce and transportation. (He was also known as a trickster and guided people into the Underworld.) The chairman has imposed ancient communications laws on the Internet, usurped the Federal Trade Commission’s role on […]
Maryland’s Proposed Purple Line Update
On August 3, 2016, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Purple Line, a proposed light-rail project in Maryland, was ineligible for federal funding until the state recalculates the Purple Line’s ridership forecasts. In nearby Washington, D.C., the public transit system (Metro), administered by the Washington […]
OMB: House Spending Bills Over Statutory Spending Caps Bust the Statutory Caps
In a sequestration report released on August 19, 2016, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) found that the fiscal year (FY) 2017 appropriations bills in the House are $792 million over the discretionary caps. If signed into law, the spending bill would result in across-the-board spending cuts to enforce the statutory cap if a […]
Postal Workers Protest Privatization of USPS, and Other Wishful Reforms
On August 23, 2016, postal workers held a rally on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during the American Postal Workers Union’s convention in Orlando, Florida. The union has come out against the TPP because they believe the agreement would ban postal banking and other non-postal activities while leading to the privatization of the postal service and […]