The WasteWatcher
The WasteWatcherThe Two Million Dollar Intern
Worth his weight in gold, former astronaut Steve Austin used his super-human bionic strength to fight crime, injustice and international bad guys, all in the name of the red, white and blue. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) now has its own...
The WasteWatcherWhen Regulating, Less is More
In fact, if the findings of two recent reports are any indication, government regulations are choking off a large measure of private-sector activity, and their grip is getting stronger. The first report, “License to Work,” published by the Institute...
The WasteWatcherMobile Government Apps Lack Transparency, Direction
Since entering the market for mobile apps, the federal government has shown little restraint on deployment and no respect for taxpayers. According to USA.gov, there are currently 107 mobile apps among federal agencies. Given the scope of many of the...
The WasteWatcherUnsolicited Mail Should Not be Funded by Taxpayers
There’s a lot that $63,000 can buy: a year’s worth of tuition, fees, and related expenses at Harvard; three years of healthcare costs for an average family of four; a brand new 2012 BMW Z4 Roadster with an automatic transmission and a turbocharged...
The WasteWatcherRetransmission and Must Carry Rules Must Go!
Television has changed vastly since the days analog signals carried only three major networks and one or two other channels over the airways. Today, there is a wide range of viewing options available to consumers, ranging from cable and fiber optic...
The WasteWatcherSenate Appropriators Whiff on MEADS
Senate appropriators do not appear to have gotten the memo.
The WasteWatcherLow Hanging Fruit Not Too Low to Cut
When evaluating the overall budget picture, many analysts understandably and appropriately focus on the big ticket spending items, especially the largest and fastest growing portions of the federal budget, entitlements. Sometimes, it pays to think...
The WasteWatcherTransparency Leads to Defunding of MEADS
A little transparency certainly goes a long way.
The WasteWatcherF-22 Plagued by Recurrent Problems, Cost, Lack of Mission
On the heels of much-publicized difficulties with the F-22 Raptor’s oxygen system, the Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded Lockheed Martin a $19 million contract to retrofit an automatic oxygen system on 40 of the planes it originally sold to...
The WasteWatcherCutting Spending and Waste in Fisheries
Bureaucratic, command-and-control regulation of coastal fisheries wastes taxpayers’ dollars and endangers the sustainability of this common resource. Managing a shared resource like fish in the sea is a difficult problem.
The WasteWatcherUndocumented Workers Receive Billions in Tax Credits
On July 7, 2011, the Department of the Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) issued a telling report. TIGTA found that unauthorized workers who are ineligible to obtain Social Security Numbers (SSNs), the vast majority of whom...
The WasteWatcherThe Trouble with BLS’s Pliable Green Jobs Definition
In 2009, when Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus), economists and pundits alike scoffed at the Obama administration’s estimates of the number of jobs that the bill had “created or saved.” Greg Mankiw, Harvard...
