A Government Accountability Office report released June 28 has an eye catching headline, “USDA Needs to Do More to Prevent Improper Payments to Deceased Individuals.” Yup, here we go again, our government using our tax dollars to pay dead people. The GAO discusses in its report how the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) doles out […]
Gridlock is Good
Last week, the NBC News and the WSJ released a poll on Congress’s and President Obama’s approval ratings. The Wall Street Journal states, “Rising frustration over partisan gridlock in Washington has damaged faith both in President Barack Obama and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with disapproval of Congress hitting an all-time high.” According the results, some […]
A Big Nuthin Burger
Yesterday and today, the President pivoted for the 19th time to the economy and gave a one hour-plus speech on the economy. On Wednesday, his first stop was Knox College in Illinois where he gave a commencement address in 2005. Many news reports prior to the event predicted the President wouldn’t come up with any […]
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 […]
Get a Dog
In Washington, there is an old saying. If you want a friend, get a dog. Figuratively speaking, it looks like Obamacare needs to find a dog. The bad news about Obamacare and its implementation problems started as a trickle earlier this year but as it gets closer to October 1 when the Exchanges are suppose […]
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 […]
Unions Wake Up from their Four-Year Slumber
Well, who would have thought that the very unions that spent millions of dollars to get Obamacare signed into law are now complaining to Democrat leaders in Congress about the same law, telling them, “We have a problem; you need to fix it.” In the letter to Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader […]
Flying High on the Tax Payers
I am one who appreciates our military and wants it to be strong and effective. Under our Constitution, one of the main purposes of the federal government is to “provide for the common defense.” But that does not mean that Congress and the Defense Department cannot root out wasteful spending. Here is a good example […]
Put On the Daddy Pants
Politico Pro, a Washington D.C.-based policy magazine, recently wrote a piece entitled, “The Sequester’s Slow Burn,” by Darren Samuelsohn. He starts off by saying, “So the era of sequestration has meant furloughs for more than 800,000 workers and entire agencies are shuttered for days – and those were the easy cuts. There are nine more years […]
E-Rate Program Reform To Take Center Stage at FCC
On Friday, July 19, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be meeting to discuss, among other items, reforms to the Universal Service Fund (USF)’ E-Rate program, which was highlighted in the July edition of Wastewatcher. It is expected that the outcome of this meeting will be a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) to […]