The April 16, 2014 article, “Senators Miss Sperling at Key Point for Housing Bill,” by Jon Prior, Kevin Cirilli and MJ Lee, probably should have appeared on “Page 6” of the New York Post – renowned for its gossipy tidbits about the Big Apple’s glitterati – instead of p. 10 of Politico, since it was […]
So Long, Farewell…
This week Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius resigned her position from the Department of Health and Human Services. Most policy people in Washington are not asking, “why?” but instead are pondering “what took so long?” Sebelius has been secretary at HHS since the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) was written, passed by […]
Obama of the Thousand Days
Yes, it’s happened again, twice in a matter of days. The Obama administration has made major changes to Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without Congressional approval. Based on a Galen Institute list of administrative changes to ACA, the first change occurred on April 19, 2011 when a Medicare Advantage “patch” was created to […]
The Great GATB
Spoiler Alert! In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, is ultimately gunned down in a case of mistaken identity. In another case of mistaken identity, the Government Accountability and Transparency Board (GATB), an entity established by executive order on June 13, 2011, as part of the Obama Administration’s “Campaign to Cut Waste,” can be easily confused with the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (Recovery Board), a separate operation that manages the Recovery.gov website and oversees spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, more commonly known as the “stimulus.”
In Case You Missed It
Between the three-day holiday weekend and the big snow storm on the east coast, you may have missed this news story from the Jan 17, Wall Street Journal. Titled “Exchanges See Little Progress on the Uninsured” by Christopher Weaver and Anna Wilde Mathews it concerns a survey undertaken by McKinsey & Company of 4,463 consumers between […]
Department of Veterans Affairs Conferences: Where Government Employees’ Dreams Come True
On October 30, 2013, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing regarding wasteful spending at two conferences by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The two agency events were held in Orlando, Florida and cost taxpayers a minimum of $6.1 million, according to a September 30, 2012 report released by the […]
I Take Responsibility – Sort Of
Fireworks flew today during the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s hearing as Members of Congress grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the disastrous roll-out of Obamacare. Much of it was a repeat from the hearing held on Oct 29 in the Ways and Means Committee with CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner as the witness. […]
We Aren’t Greece…Yet
There was a great article by Holman Jenkins in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday entitled: “Behind the Noise, Entitlement Reform.” My summary of his piece is: Perhaps if some Greek politicians had put their foot down 10 years ago to halt their country’s overspending and demanded reform of its nanny state, maybe their country […]
CAGW Releases October WasteWatcher
For Immediate Release Contact: Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 October 3, 2013 Alexandra Booze 202-467-5318 Sequestration is Better than Sliced Bread By Tom Schatz WasteWatcher, October 2013 It is time for official Washington to admit that sequestration is the best thing that has happened for taxpayers since Gramm-Rudman in the mid-1980s. Domestic discretionary spending is being reduced […]
President Obama Meet Senator Obama
As we approach the debt-ceiling debate (expected to be sometime between mid-October and mid-November) it is worth to review what Senator Obama said about raising the debt ceiling in March, 2006. You can find his statement in the Congressional Record here, page 2237. but I have provided it for you just below. Before you read […]