When a participant goes on the popular Learning Channel show Trading Spaces, they have two days to redesign a room in the home of a friend or family member. They must remain under budget throughout the process. Conversely, when FEMA decides to remodel, it tends to extend projects indefinitely and ignore budget limitations. Nonetheless, fans of the home improvement show might still enjoy FEMA’s project along the Gulf Coast.
Legal Services Nonprofit Wastes Tax Dollars
Free legal help is getting more expensive for taxpayers and much of the money is going to waste.
The Legal Services Corporation (LSC), which received $330.8 million in fiscal 2006, distributes money to 138 local nonprofit legal aid organizations across the country to help provide free legal services for the indigent. However, the Associated Press reported in September that audits from the group’s internal inspector general, “Kirt” West, identified questionable spending practices among LSC board members.
College Town Poverty – Ramen Noodles AGAIN?
It’s an early afternoon on a crisp fall day in an average college town. In preparation for the game, young professionals are piling into local bars and restaurants to see their alma mater play. The late risers are lining up at the numerous downtown coffee shops to inject some caffeine prior to kickoff. After the game, there are more festivities – food, drinks, and celebration.
Nothing seems out of the ordinary, until one learns that the federal government occasionally labels such towns as among the poorest in the country. This backwards fact is made possible by the government’s formula that determines distribution of anti-poverty funds.
Newark Mayor Takes Taxpayers for a Ride
With a salary of $186,000, one would think that the mayor of Newark would have no need for taxpayers to pay for his vacations. Think again. Even though former mayor Sharpe James had an annual travel expense budget of $25,000, he is currently under investigation for adding $150,000 for numerous expenses and exotic vacations. The globe-trotting has been chronicled by The Star-Ledger of Newark.
USPS Chief Living Large
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is fond of describing itself as a business, on par with some Fortune 100 companies. However, a recent investigation by the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) into allegations of misconduct of one of its chief spokespersons, Vice-President for Public Affairs and Communications (PAC) Azeezaly Jaffer, graphically reveals just how far removed postal business operations are from those of any well-run, private sector corporation.
A Little Rain, A Lot of Waste in Florida
How can a tempest that failed to arrive cost taxpayers $17 million? That is the estimated price of the impact of Hurricane Ernesto on South Florida. If you thought, as I had, that Ernesto struck the United States farther north and hardly affected the Sunshine State, you would be correct. $17 million is the amount some counties in southern Florida are claiming they are entitled to, in order to recoup their preparation costs.
Salvage the Good from the Healthcare Debacle
The healthcare reform juggernaut, arguably the most radical attempt to remake the economy and the nation’s healthcare infrastructure in history, was supposed to have flown through Congress before the August recess with nary a peep. Instead, as Americans have gotten wind of its alarming provisions and exorbitant costs, the plan appears to be fizzling fast in the summer heat.
Flying High: HHS Secretary Proves Pork Can Fly
Mike Leavitt’s got a ticket to ride, and he don’t care. The Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary used a luxury private jet, leased by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention for use only in emergencies, to rack up $720,000, or 60 percent, of the $2.1 million the jet has cost taxpayers since January.
Working Group Wastes Our Time
The Citizens’ Health Care Working Group was created by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 to foster a “national discussion” on healthcare to be presented as a report and reviewed by the President and Congress in order to change healthcare policy in America.
The Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment
The federal government’s continuing prosecution of medical marijuana patients undermines federalism and fiscal restraint. For the fourth year in a row, the House will vote on an amendment sponsored by Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). The amendment would prohibit the federal government from arresting users of medical marijuana in states where it has been deemed legal. The amendment does not prevent the Justice Department from prosecuting individuals using marijuana for a recreational purpose or individuals using marijuana for medicinal purposes in states where it is still considered illegal.