Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts

Congress Pisses Down Our Backs And Tells Us It's Raining

by Daniel J. Mitchell.    Another budget deal good for Washington and bad for America. Advocates of smaller government are justifiably upset by the pork-filled spending bill enacted in December. With goodies for countless special interests, it was more "ominous" than "omnibus." But that wasn't the biggest fiscal hit Congress inflicted on America in   ... MORE

Peter Suderman: Democrats And Republicans Team Up To Bust The Budget With A $1.8 Trillion Spending Package

Politicians indulge themselves at taxpayer expense.     One way to understand the massive federal spending package is as a compromise between Republicans and Democrats to ignore the deficit. The deal is made of two different elements—a 2,009-page omnibus that folds in 12 appropriations bills and calls for $1.1 trillion in spending,     ... MORE

Where Is The Outrage Over Corporate Welfare?

by David Brunori.         I recently read the February 24 Good Jobs First report, “Subsidizing the Corporate One Percent,” by Philip Mattera, a respected thought leader in our business. It says that three-quarters of all state economic development subsidies went to just 965 corporations since the beginning of the study in 1976. The Fortune 500       ... MORE

John Stossel: Spring Clean Government

Spring cleaning is a healthy tradition.      If only politicians did it! They don't. When Barack Obama ran for president, he promised to clean house, "I'm not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every government program just because it's there. There are some that don't work." I cheered when I heard that! But politicians always   ... MORE

Baylen Linnekin: This Farm Bill Stinks

A lousy new Farm Bill is about to become law.     CattlePublic DomainLike a phoenix made of pork, the Farm Bill has risen from the ashes. And for opponents of farm subsidies and wasteful government spending, that’s bad news. The measure, which had languished for two years in Congress, passed in the House this week. The Senate is   ... MORE

How Government Wasted Taxpayer Dollars In 2013

3-D pizza printing, pole dancing, the $100,000 outhouse ... The federal government spent $680 billion more than it took in during the 2013 fiscal year. But despite shutting down much of Washington in an argument over how much debt to rack up in 2014, Uncle Sam continues to green-light spending on projects that only their contractors     ... MORE

Froma Harrop: Scandal In Candyland

Taxpayers get not-so-sweet deal.            Ever notice how some government programs draw the ire of almost everyone? Conservatives, liberals, environmentalists, libertarians, business, labor, consumers and grouchy taxpayers are all opposed. Yet these programs go on as though directed by an unstoppable particle beam from a neighboring     ... MORE

John Stossel: Trains To Nowhere

When Democrats and Republicans agree, I get nervous.     It often means that they agree to grab my wallet. Both parties now agree that we don't have extra budget money lying around, but both say government does need to spend more on "infrastructure." Even conservatives want more spent on roads and mass transit.   ... MORE

Emily Goff: The Top 10 Ways Washington Wastes Money

Lawmakers have lost control.      Whether it’s negotiating over how much to spend on government operations or the government’s borrowing limit, we hear a familiar refrain in Washington these days: There is absolutely no room to cut federal spending. This is not the case. Many people remember the millions spent on the infamous “Bridge     ... MORE

IRS Pays Over 200 Employees To Work Full-Time For Union

by Eliana Johnson.    The Internal Revenue Service pays over 200 full-time employees not to conduct audits or process tax returns but to work for a federal employees’ union, according to documents released by the agency in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the advocacy group Americans for Limited Government. Forty-three  ... MORE

U.S. State Dept Spends $630,000 On Facebook "Likes"

Your tax dollars at work.   The US State Department was Wednesday under fire for spending $630,000 over two years to win millions of "likes" on its Facebook pages at a time of severe government austerity measures. A scathing report by the department's independent watchdog took the coordinators of its social media outreach policy to task saying  ... MORE

No More Tax Dollars For Presidential Libraries

by Gene Healy.    Last week, at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, President Obama and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter put partisanship aside and descended on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas to say nice things about our 43rd president, (They're all in the same racket, after all.)     ... MORE

If You're Reading This, You're Surviving The Sequester Cuts

by John Stossel. That may surprise you, since President Obama likened the sequester to taking a "meat cleaver" to government, causing FBI agents to be furloughed, prosecutors to let criminals escape and medical research to grind to a halt! The media hyped it, too. The NBC Nightly News said, "The sequester could cripple air travel, force       ... MORE

Amy Payne: Uproar Over Bloated Sandy Aid Package

Bloated governor decries selfishness.   Leaders from New Jersey and New York blew up yesterday after House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) postponed a vote on an aid package related to Hurricane Sandy. But the bill is so loaded with pork projects that these officials should consider directing their anger at the Obama Administration, which is    ... MORE

Col. K Allard: Sequestration Spotlights Real Defense Abuses

Billions lost in cozy bureaucratic status quo.  A panel of defense-industry executives complained last week to a National Press Club audience about the defense budget cuts known as sequestration. Calling those reductions “irresponsible,” TASC CEO David Langstaff said sequestration would shatter “our ability to execute U.S. national   ... MORE

The Case Against Taxpayer-Funded Crop Insurance

by Baylen Linnekin.   The Farm Bill, that quintessentially quinquennial congressional replenishment of the pork trough from which many of America’s farmers indulge, is now upon us. Late last month the bill, dubbed the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012, cleared what will likely be its biggest hurdle when the bipartisan Senate Agriculture    ... MORE

Washington Times: A Streetcar Named Debt

Rail projects highlight out-of-control spending priorities.    The District on Friday completed the first phase of testing for its $1.5 billion streetcar project. The nation’s capital joins big cities like Los Angeles in advancing the revival of a transportation option that has been obsolete for more than half a century. The Obama administration is spearheading the  ... MORE