Any traveler would prefer champagne, fine dining, and ample leg room on their next plane flight. However, most people either cannot afford a premium class ticket or deem it not worth the extra expense. Charging the tickets to the government has a way of changing the equation. An April 2006 Government Accountability Office report revealed how some public servants are traveling like rock stars at the taxpayers’ expense.
The Invasive Nature of “Net Neutrality”
The world has seen an incredible increase in computer and Internet capabilities over the last decade. This expansion has been spurred by the capitalist principles of competition. The dynamism of the Internet is now being threatened by politicians who want to regulate it. If implemented, regulation will stifle competition, raise consumer costs, and hinder high-speed Internet deployment and innovation.
Taxpayers Get Railroaded
In an emergency supplemental appropriations bill designed to provide $92 billion for the war on terror and hurricane relief, Mississippi Senators Trent Lott (R) and Thad Cochran (R) added $700 million to relocate newly repaired railroad tracks. The costly pork barrel project has been jammed into an already bloated bill which currently sits at $106.5 billion, or $14.5 billion above the $92 billion version passed by the House last month, which met the President’s request.
Iowa Nonprofit is Latest Earmark Outrage
The Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium (CIETC) is a nonprofit organization that provides job-training services for the Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) program. As extensively reported by The Des Moines Register, the group’s top three executives were recently fired after a state audit found that they collected a combined $1.8 million in salaries over 30 months. Congressional earmarks and breakdown of oversight allowed a cadre of greedy schemers to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense.
The CVC – Not a Capitol Idea
With 580,000 square feet, three underground stories, and space three-quarters the size of the Capitol itself, the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) is a monument to Congress’s own excess. It was recently announced that the project is experiencing yet another cost increase and construction delay. On February 15, an official from the Government Accountability Office testified […]
Taxpayers Get Charged Overtime
In March 2005, The Record revealed that more than 100 retired police officers with the New York Port Authority (PA) are getting at least $100,000 a year in pensions. Because many senior PA cops were logging long hours of overtime, and because overtime is included in pension calculations, retirees are receiving up to double the pay they made in a normal working year. At least 25 other PA retirees are getting pensions in excess of $100,000 as well.
Mrs. Bush, too, Loves the Earmarks
It’s funny how sometimes we just disregard the Constitution and the specific powers it gives to each branch of the federal government. I learned as well as many others in the ninth grade that the power of the purse is given to the Congress, so the citizens have some influence and comments on how their tax dollars were going to be spent. Funny how that never really worked out since there are so many projects funded through earmarks.
Congress Not Seeing Drug War Waste
The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was established in 1988 to develop and coordinate policies and objectives to decrease illegal drug use, manufacturing, trafficking, drug-related crime and violence, and drug-related health consequences in the United States. In May 2005, CAGW released Up in Smoke: ONDCP’s Wasted Efforts in the War on […]
The Wal-Mart Bill
In January, the Maryland legislature overrode Governor Bob Ehrlich’s veto of the Fair Share Act. The legislation requires all businesses in the state of Maryland with 10,000 or more employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee health benefits or pay the difference in a tax. Although there are several large employers in the state, the bill only affects Wal-Mart. In reality, this law has nothing to do with providing health insurance. It represents the continuing effort of labor unions and their allies to demonize and punish successful, non-unionized companies. A similar bill was passed in Suffolk County, New York that affects large, non-unionized grocery stores.
Bingo Terror
In October 2005, the Kentucky Office of Charitable Gaming won a $36,300 grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to protect bingo halls from terrorists. The money will pay for laptop computers with access to a law-enforcement database. Authorities are concerned that terrorists may attempt to raise large amounts of cash by playing bingo or running a charitable game.