The WasteWatcher

Another Deficit Driver: Contractor Pensions
Since the 1980s, private companies, the federal government, and several state governments have eliminated the uncertainties and risks associated with managing defined benefit pension plans (low interest rates, stock market declines, and an aging...

Disability is the New Welfare
The two primary federal disability insurance programs, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), provide assistance to individuals with disabilities. SSDI is funded through payroll taxes and can be supplied...

Batter Up! Move the Budget Baseline
For fans of the national pastime in Washington, D.C., it would be great if the Nationals could just start the new season where they left off last year. The District’s boys of summer would automatically be handed the 2013 National League East...

Testing the Waters on Health Technology
While the number of physicians who use computers to store patient information is rising, most are still clinging to large manila file folders to record and retain complete patient histories. U.S. News and World Report reported on February 20, 2013...

Time to Get Real with Federal Property
The federal government has many addictions, including profligate spending, wasting money, and regulating the private lives of citizens. In such an environment, certain excesses are to be expected. But when they develop, it is important that they...

Got jobs?
For all the hand-wringing since March 1 about the sequester and the Obama administration threatening to furlough thousands of federal employees and contractors, thus marking the end of civilization as we know it, you would be happy to know the...

Government Waste TV
There are more than enough egregious examples of mismanagement and inefficiency to create "Government Waste TV."

Drip Drip Drip
Just like a leaky faucet, more stories are dripping out every day on how Obamacare (Affordable Care Act /ACA) is going to be complicated for people to enroll in it, that it is going to be very messy in 2014 when it officially starts, and that...

Sugar! Oh, Help Me, Help Me!
“Sugar, Sugar” was the Number One single of 1969.

IRS Spent $60,000 on Star Trek and Gilligan's Island Parody Videos
If you thought that there couldn't possibly be any other embarrassing details about federal agency conference spending, I regret to inform you that you were wrong.

Checking in on contractor waste
In March of 2009, President Obama delivered a speech on procurement at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in which he excoriated the outgoing administration for its irresponsible spending on government contracts.

Business as Usual in the Land of the Midnight Sun
Alaska has long received more than its fair share of federal funding.