With the beginning of a new administration, the best and brightest in leadership are often selected to advise the President. House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, M.D. (R-Ga.), who has been nominated as the secretary of Health and Human Services, fits that description. He will not only be an excellent secretary; he has been an exceptional chairman of the committee. In December, 2016, Chairman Price proposed a series of changes to the budget process. His reforms, which will help return the budget process to regular order, include:
Statement by CAGW President Tom Schatz on the Beginning of the 115th Congress
CAGW President Tom Schatz released the following statement on the start of the 115th Congress: Taxpayers have good reason to be optimistic for the New Year. For the first time, the nation will have a president and cabinet with substantial experience managing large, complex organizations; and there’s nothing bigger and more complicated than the federal […]
Power of the Purse and Budget Process Reform
Since the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (CBA) was first passed, Congress has been able to pass the 12 appropriations bills on time on only three occasions; the most recent was in 1997. Although the CBA has been amended several times, the budget process remains as broken as it is confusing. It allows members of […]
Lame-Duck Session, 114th Congress: The Victors, the Vanquished, and the Un-Inaugurated
For anyone unfamiliar with the patois of politics, the term “lame duck” may seem like a bit of an odd duck, rhetorically speaking. As defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the more common understanding of this phrase is “an elected official or group continuing to hold political office during the period between the election and the […]
Show Me the Budget
Americans might fondly remember many experiences from 1996, including watching “Independence Day” and “Jerry Maguire,” reading about the cloning of Dolly the sheep, dancing to the Macarena, and surfing new websites such as Ask Jeeves and eBay.
Washington’s 2016 Year-End Spending Spree
As federal fiscal years wind down, a frustrating ritual takes place throughout departments and agencies: a spending surge on frivolous items in order to avoid budget cuts in the next fiscal year. The final month of fiscal year 2016 is no exception.
A Cure for Electoral Depression: Focus Final 2016 Presidential Debate on Policy Solutions
In a recent poll, a sizable portion of young Americans said they would rather vote for a giant meteor to strike the Earth over either of the two presidential candidates. There might be a reason for such a dark and depressing result. The first two presidential debates have utterly failed to discuss important issues facing the nation with any depth, choosing to focus on shenanigans instead of substance.
Medicare Making Improper Payments to Prisoners
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently exposed vulnerabilities that end up costing taxpayers hundreds of billions in wasteful spending due to erroneous and sloppy billing, and outright fraud. The OIG’s October 7, 2016 report documented that even though The Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization […]
Clinton/Trump Round 2: Taxpayers Deserve a Policy Debate
Before the first Presidential debate on September 27, 2016, CAGW proposed policy questions that would enlighten taxpayers as to where each candidate stands on critical government waste issues facing the nation. Unfortunately, the debate utterly failed to discuss any of these issues with any depth, choosing to focus on shenanigans instead of substance. Hillary Clinton […]
Congress Passes Continuing Resolution
On September 28, 2016, the U.S. Senate and, a few hours later, the House of Representatives passed a resolution that would continue the funding of the government through December 9, 2016 – narrowly missing the last day of this fiscal year, which ends on the September 30th. Since Congress failed to pass the 12 individual […]