The WasteWatcher
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...
The WasteWatcherThough Some Cuts Made, Farm Bill is still Flush with Waste
On June 21, 2012, the Senate voted 64-35 in favor of S. 3240, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012, which would cut the deficit by $23.6 billion over a ten year period. At first glance this seems like a lot of money, until you realize...
The WasteWatcherTrivial Resolutions Come at a High Cost to Taxpayers
According to a June 2012 Gallup poll, 79 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job. Perhaps this is because legislation passed by members of Congress is all too often a reflection of their parochial rather than...
The WasteWatcherFarm Bill Should Buy the Farm
When is $24 billion not a lot of money? When it represents all the savings taxpayers can expect from the supposedly new-and-improved Farm Bill, formally known as S. 3240, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012, which may reach the Senate...
The WasteWatcherGulp! Mayor Bloomberg’s Ban on Large Sodas is Hard to Swallow
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes that the local government should crack down to help those with a coke addiction…but he’s not talking about drug addicts. On May 31, 2012, Mayor Bloomberg proposed banning the sale of large-sized sodas,...
The WasteWatcherGovernment Waste Is Alive And Well In West Virginia
In 2009, the state of West Virginia was granted $126,323,296 instimulus funding for the “West Virginia Statewide Broadband Infrastructure Project” to increase broadband access in public facilities including schools, libraries, and hospitals i
The WasteWatcherRound 3: Net Neutrality Debate Continues
Even as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has yet to weigh in on the Verizon case against the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCCs) net neutrality 2010 Report and Order on Preserving the Open Internet (FCC 10-210),...
The WasteWatcherReform the Senate Office Allowance System
A culture of inefficient government spending is endemic in Washington, D.C. However, such behavior is particularly frustrating for taxpayers when the rare example of spending less money produces an unsatisfactory outcome.
The WasteWatcherHigher Education: The Next Bubble
The nation’s outstanding student loan balance climbed to more than $1 trillion in May, which includes $460.2 billion held by the federal government. If the higher education bubble bursts, taxpayers will have to clean up the mess.
