The WasteWatcher
The Invasive Nature of “Net Neutrality”
The world has seen an incredible increase in computer and Internet capabilities over the last decade. This expansion has been spurred by the capitalist principles of competition. The dynamism of the Internet is now being threatened by politicians...
Taxpayers Get Charged Overtime
In March 2005, The Record revealed that more than 100 retired police officers with the New York Port Authority (PA) are getting at least $100,000 a year in pensions. Because many senior PA cops were logging long hours of overtime, and because...
The CVC - Not a Capitol Idea
With 580,000 square feet, three underground stories, and space three-quarters the size of the Capitol itself, the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) is a monument to Congress’s own excess. It was recently announced that the project is experiencing yet...
Congress Not Seeing Drug War Waste
The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was established in 1988 to develop and coordinate policies and objectives to decrease ille
Mrs. Bush, too, Loves the Earmarks
It’s funny how sometimes we just disregard the Constitution and the specific powers it gives to each branch of the federal government. I learned as well as many others in the ninth grade that the power of the purse is given to the Congress, so the...
Bingo Terror
In October 2005, the Kentucky Office of Charitable Gaming won a $36,300 grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to protect bingo halls from terrorists. The money will pay for laptop computers with access to a law-enforcement database...
The Wal-Mart Bill
In January, the Maryland legislature overrode Governor Bob Ehrlich’s veto of the Fair Share Act. The legislation requires all businesses in the state of Maryland with 10,000 or more employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee...
Government Credit Cards and Hurricane Katrina
The damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina left no question that taxpayers would be paying a hefty bill for rescue and reconstruction. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, more than $39 million of that bill was paid for by federal employees...
"Buy America" Rips Off America
“Buy America” provisions have been insterted into legislation, especially defense bills, for many years. Usually, such provisions are removed from the final version of the defense legislation. That happened late last year, when Senate leaders and...