The anthrax attacks of October, 2001 may seem like a distant memory to many Americans, but the incidents created widespread alarm, prompting a debate within the U.S. government over how to better protect the nation from the critical threat of chemical and biological weapons attacks.
The Ongoing Farce of the “Emergency Supplementals”
As the House of Representatives rushed to finish legislative business in advance of the Memorial Day recess, the fate of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010Supplemental Appropriations Bill was pushed off until lawmakers returnon June 8. The bill allocates $37.5 billion to support ongoing war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unfortunately, it also piles on tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for dozens of non-emergency items, all of which add to the $1.56 trillion annual deficit and the national debt, which topped $13 trillion on May 25, 2010, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
GM’s “Claims” of Repayment
During the economic crisis that unfolded over the last few years, the federal government became the lender of the last resort, not because it had any money, but because it had the ability to borrow money on behalf of the taxpayers to lend to struggling businesses.
Stimulus Rebellion on the Eastern Shore
There is a brawl brewing in the bucolic fields of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. The Obama Administration’s $862 billion stimulus fund, ostensibly targeted toward shovel-ready, jobs-producing projects, is going toward the construction of a decidedly non-shovel-ready 2,000-acre U.S. State Department security training facility that residents in the region neither need nor want. This tiny band of committed activists, comprised of Republicans, Democrats, private property rights advocates, conservationists, and small business owners, may go down in history as one of the only communities in the country to successfully reject a wasteful stimulus pork project.
Time to Revisit the Benefits of $1 Coins
On April 21, 2010, the U.S. Treasury released its new version of the $100 bill. Featuring an updated portrait of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, the bill boasts advanced measures to obstruct counterfeiters. However, while the federal government has recently focused on this large tender, more attention needs to be paid to the other end of the currency spectrum: the $1 coin.
The Congressional Pig Book in Focus
April 14, 2010 was not just the day before tax day; it wasalso the day when hard-working taxpayers got the news that$16.5 billion of their taxeswas wasted on pork-barrel earmarks with the unveiling of Citizen Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) annual expose of pork-barrel spending, the 2010 Congressional Pig Book. 2010 also marked the 20th anniversary […]
It is Time to Deflate Federal Salaries
A recent trend in Washington, D.C. is to spend enormous amounts of taxpayer money on programs that politicians sell to the public as absolutely necessary and important. That approach led to swift passage of the $700 billion TARP program, the $862 billion stimulus program and the $300 billion mortgage assistance program. These programs have been expensive, ineffective and inefficient while all paid for with money the government had to borrow from taxpayers, as well as their children and grandchildren.
Sex, Drugs and BlackBerrys
On the stimulus package’s one-year anniversary on Feb. 17, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stated that taxpayers had “gotten their money’s worth.” However, it is difficult to understand how multimillion-dollar “stimulus” programs that research methamphetamine’s effects on rats, build turtle crossings under highways, put up roadside signs to advertise stimulus programs and produce few long-term jobs are effective uses of taxpayer dollars. In Washington, $977,346 is being spent on a program that will provide just one job and give a few hundred BlackBerrys to smokers to help them kick the habit.
Stimulating…or Just Plain Depressing?
February 17, 2010 marked the one-year anniversary of America’s favorite farce, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Ironically, this $862 billion “stimulus” bill has proven to be nothing more than a profligate program that has further depressed the nation’s economy.
Don’t Count on an Efficient Census Bureau
The Census and the Super Bowl are American traditions whose paths had never crossed until February 7. That is when the Census Bureau spent $2.5 million for an ad during the big game to urge people to fill out and send in their questionnaires. This expenditure was just the latest in a number of high profile missteps by the agency.