We’ve made it pretty clear on this blog that Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will not be good for Americans. Its big government approach will drive up costs and lower the quality of the kind of healthcare we have become accustomed to. There is something else it will do and that is firmly […]
COINS Act Makes Cents
On June 6, 2013, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), along with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) introduced S. 1105, the Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings Act. This bipartisan legislation would save the United State $4.5 billion by eliminating the $1 bill and replacing with the $1 […]
Show Ex-Im the Ex-It
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is among the federal government’s least-known but most obvious examples of corporate welfare. Its populist mission – the subsidization of American exports – might appeal to a wide swath of economically unsophisticated observers, but it is nonetheless an unfair giveaway of tax dollars. The Ex-Im bank […]
In Other News…..The Farm Bill and The Terrible Twelve!
With the triad of scandals rocking Washington this week, you would be forgiven if you were unaware of the fact that we are heading into consideration of a five-year $940 billion Farm Bill, starting Monday. CCAGW, along with ten other taxpayer watchdog and consumer groups, distributed a nice primer on the “Terrible Twelve” items currently contained in the behemoth that should be of serious concern: “Washington’s Farm Policy is a nearly […]
The 2013 Farm Bill – An Opportunity for Serious Waste Reduction
Although some progress was made last year toward passing a new, five-year Farm Bill, taxpayers should for once be thankful that lawmakers were unable to do their jobs, as the legislation left many programs largely unreformed and opened the door for additional wasteful spending. This week, both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are scheduled […]
Crisis in Cyprus – A Prologue for US?
No doubt many of you are aware of the financial crisis in Cyprus, a small country in the Mediterranean located near Turkey. The politicians in Cyprus, in an effort to prevent the country from going into bankruptcy, hatched a plan to seize – No STEAL – up to ten percent of the personal bank accounts […]
GM Bailout Could Get Much Worse
WasteWatcher, January, 2013
No Last-Minute Delivery on Postal Reform
By Leslie Paige WasteWatcher, December, 2012 The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced on November 15, 2012 that in fiscal year (FY) 2012, which ended on September 30, the agency lost a record $15.9 billion. In June, 2012 at a PostalVision 2020 conference in Washington, Postmaster General (PMG) Patrick Donahoe flatly stated that if the […]
Defense Waste: The Final Frontier
Sean Kennedy As the country careens toward the automatic year-end program cuts and expiration of tax breaks labeled “the fiscal cliff,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has been on the offensive, releasing reports in consecutive months highlighting wasteful spending in government. The November Wastewatcher detailed Sen. Coburn’s Wastebook 2012, which targeted 100 projects costing taxpayers more […]
How Congress Should Avert the Fiscal Cliff
As the economy teeters precariously on the edge of the so-called “fiscal cliff,” it is difficult not to imagine what advice Milton Friedman, the brilliant economist and staunch advocate of limited government and fiscal restraint, would have offered our nation’s lawmakers had he lived to celebrate his hundredth birthday. For those not fluent in wonk […]