Replacing the aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers has been an Air Force priority since 2002. In that year, Congress approved funding for Boeing to lease up to 100 767s to replace the 50-year-old KC-135 tankers. However, the deal fell apart in a 2004 bribery scandal in which a top Pentagon procurement officer and a senior Boeing official were convicted and served prison sentences.
Air Force Tanker Struggling to Lift Off
Replacing the aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers has been an Air Force priority since 2002. In that year, Congress approved funding for Boeing to lease up to 100 767s to replace the 50-year-old KC-135 tankers. However, the deal fell apart in a 2004 bribery scandal in which a top Pentagon procurement officer and a senior Boeing official were convicted and served prison sentences.
The “Razorback Subsidy” is a Whole Different Kind of Disaster for Taxpayers
President Obama needs to pass a bill, but a powerful chairwoman of a Senate committee, who is in danger of not being reelected, adds a controversial and expensive provision that puts passage in jeopardy. Conventional wisdom says that the White House cuts a deal. And, unfortunately, that is exactly what happened at the end of July, when the White House told the Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) that they would still help her obtain $1.5 billion in farm disaster aid if she promised to remove language funding the program from a small business bill.
The Great Unraveling Continues…
The new summer blockbuster “Inception” features spectacular special effect sequences of towering edifices exploding, crumbling, and otherwise disintegrating in a film that addresses the fine line between reality and a dream state. Right before the film’s protagonists emerge from medically-induced dream states, they experience instability, turbulence, and ultimately the total collapse of their immediate physical environments. These sequences, which are awesome to behold on the big screen, are reminiscent of what is happening now in the real world with regard to the fiscal projections made about President Obama’s healthcare bill, only a lot less entertaining.
Spending Revolt Bus Across America
Fed up with excessive government spending, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), Americans for Prosperity, the 60 Plus Association, Concerned Women for America, and AmericaSpeakOn.org have joined forces to create a new website, www.spendingrevolt.com and go on a multi-state bus tour to educate and activate taxpayers. The wake-up tour is intended to arm Americans with facts and figures about government spending so they can change their spending habits in Washington.The busmeasures 70 feet long and has space for people to write “personal messages” to their elected officials.
Pork Alert Roundup: Recess Edition
In recent years, Congress has been unable to complete the appropriations process by the start of the new fiscal year (FY), which occurs on October 1. Unfortunately, this year will not be an exception.
Government Broadband Deployment Report Card: F
To say that the Internet has grown over the past 15 years is an understatement. According to Internet World Stats, there were 16 million users in 1995 compared to 1.9 billion users in June, 2010, an increase of 11,775 percent. In addition, the Internet is much faster as a result of the deployment of broadband, and its uses have also expanded exponentially.
The Fannie and Freddie Meltdown: Picking Up PACE
On September 6, 2008, the nation’s two largest housing government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken under conservatorship by the U.S. Treasury.
Pork Alert Roundup
On July 1, 2010, Citizens Against Government Waste began issuing its annual flurry of Pork Alerts, which highlight earmarks in the annual appropriation bills. In a perfect world, the House and the Senate would each release a version of the 12 appropriations bills throughout the summer and early fall. However, the process rarely runs that smoothly.
Flood Insurance Still Soaks the Taxpayer
In early July, politicians in Washington, D.C. missed an opportunity to improve the failing National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) when Congress passed another short-term reauthorization that expires on September 30, 2010. A second bite at the apple was even more misguided when on July 15, 2010, the House passed H.R. 5114, the Flood Insurance Reform Priorities Act, a five-year reauthorization of the NFIP, which expanded the program.