I am one who appreciates our military and wants it to be strong and effective. Under our Constitution, one of the main purposes of the federal government is to “provide for the common defense.” But that does not mean that Congress and the Defense Department cannot root out wasteful spending. Here is a good example […]
Put On the Daddy Pants
Politico Pro, a Washington D.C.-based policy magazine, recently wrote a piece entitled, “The Sequester’s Slow Burn,” by Darren Samuelsohn. He starts off by saying, “So the era of sequestration has meant furloughs for more than 800,000 workers and entire agencies are shuttered for days – and those were the easy cuts. There are nine more years […]
Farm Bill, Part 2: Divide (the Bill) and Conquer (the Conservatives?)
Rep. Frank D. Lucas (R-Okla.), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has proposed a strategy to move the chamber’s recently failed 2013 Farm Bill forward to passage by the House and on to conference with the Senate’s already passed version. Stung by the unprecedented defeat of a recurring piece of legislation once considered “must pass” […]
Bottom Feeders Take a Bite Out of the Farm Bill
On June 10, 2013 the Senate passed its version of the Farm Bill, which included provisions to operate catfish inspections by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jean Shaheen (D-N.H.) sponsored an amendment that would have eliminated the program, but a vote was blocked by Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie […]
Boneheaded Bonuses and Boondoggles
Just when you thought the IRS had been properly chastised and humbled for its egregious behavior with respect to its over-the-top spending on training conferences, some $50 million between 2010 and 2012, the agency is now preparing to hand out $70 million in bonus money to its employees. This is being done in spite of […]
Internal Revenue (Dis)Service
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is under heavy scrutiny after a report by the Inspector General (IG) at the Treasury Department. Recent videos have surfaced showing IRS employees practicing the popular dance, “the cupid shuffle” and parodying Star Trek. Costing more than $50,000, these videos add visual representations of the service’s recent misuse of tax […]
Senators Seek Elimination of Wasteful and Overlapping Benefit Payments
On June 6, NBC News and The Wall Street Journal released a poll that showed Americans blame welfare programs more than any other reason for persistent poverty in the United States. The poll was conducted between May 30 and June 2 and sampled 1,000 adults. Respondents were given a list of eight factors and were […]
Another IRS Box-Office Hit!
We’ve heard a lot about the IRS’s over-the-top targeting and harassment of conservative and tea party groups and how the agency delayed the groups’ applications for non-profit status. But the hits just keep coming for the IRS. This past weekend, we were treated to the spectacle of IRS employees doing a tax-payer funded line dance […]
Slow Progress, but Progress Nonetheless
On May 21, 2013, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced the approval of Amazon Web Services as an authorized cloud service provider for the federal government under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted the application for Amazon Web Services to receive its provisional authority […]
Peeling Back Another Onion
As I wrote last week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gotten herself into some hot water concerning her solicitation for donations for non-profit groups that will help with the implementation of Obamacare. She asked for donations from corporations, some of which are regulated by HHS, and foundations. Reuters reports the non-profit “Enroll America” seems to […]