The 2011 Wastebook
The office of Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has released the 2011 edition of its annual “Wastebook.” The document spotlights 100 particularly ridiculous expenditures of taxpayer money from the past year. From an entertainment standpoint, it’s pure gold. But it’s also infuriating, depressing, and a painful reminder of what happens when politicians and bureaucrats spend other [...]
Jack Link’s Presents: Messin’ With Taxpayers
If you’re a taxpayer and you like beef jerky, I have good and bad news. The good news is that Jack Link’s is expanding the production facilities at its corporate home in Minong, Wisconsin. The bad news is the expansion is being “made possible” with a $365,000 federal grant to Minong for infrastructure upgrades. The money comes [...]
USPS Gives Congress More Time to Kick Can
Last week, the U.S. Postal Service filed a plan with its regulator to close half of its mail processing facilities and reduce delivery standards in order to reduce costs. I called the move a message to Congress because “the USPS is running on financial fumes and Congress is still trying to figure out how to kick the [...]
Obama and Mitch Daniels Team Up to ‘Shovel’ Subsidies
The Indianapolis Star recently profiled local boy makes good (handing out other people’s money) John Fernandez, the ex-Bloomington mayor and Obama fundraiser who now heads up the Economic Development Administration. A reference to an EDA taxpayer handout to a technology park in southern Indiana caught my eye: Southwestern Indiana got a $6.7 million boost from the EDA last [...]
USPS Sends a Message to Congress
Last Monday, the U.S. Postal Service filed its proposal to reduce service standards with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). The USPS is seeking to cut costs by closing about half of its mail processing facilities, which would mean slower mail delivery. Given that the USPS is running on financial fumes and Congress is still trying to figure [...]
Congress’ Budget in Perspective
A new poll conducted for The Hill found that 67 percent of likely voters think members of Congress should take a pay cut. With the economy still struggling and the government’s debt continuing to mount, congressional pay is — understandably — a sore subject with voters. However, I get the impression that a lot of [...]
Senate Postal Reform Bill Needs a New Title
The USPS is supposed to operate like a business by relying on the revenues from the sale of postal products to cover costs. Congress makes that harder by imposing various obligations and stifling attempts to reduce costs. Add in a weak economy, the growth in alternative forms of communication, and a predominantly unionized workforce that has secured [...]
The ‘Tea Party Budget’
The “Tea Party Debt Commission” affiliated with FreedomWorks recently released a budget plan (downloadhere). In formulating its plan, the commission took into account fifteen budget plans introduced by various groups and policymakers, including Cato’s Downsizing Government website. The effort comes in response to criticism – valid in my opinion – that the amorphous tea party movement hasn’t [...]
We’ve Had Enough Government ‘Stimulation’
After three years and $4 trillion in combined deficit spending, unemployment remains stubbornly high and the economy sluggish. That people are still asking what the government can do to stimulate the economy is mind-boggling. That the Keynesian-inspired deficit spending binge did create jobs isn’t in question. The real question is whether it created any net jobs after [...]
Thoughts on the ‘Minibus’ Spending Bill
The House is scheduled to vote this evening on a fiscal 2012 “minibus” packaging of three appropriations bills (Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science and Transportation-HUD) agreed to in conference on Monday. It includes a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through December 16th, thus avoiding a government “shutdown.” In sum, I think the bill is largely business [...]
Coburn Report on Subsidies for Millionaires
Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) new report on the various federal subsidies being collected by millionaires deserves applause for not resorting to class warfare rhetoric in making the point that it’s silly for wealthy folks to receive taxpayer handouts: We should never demonize those who are successful. Nor should we pamper them with unnecessary welfare to create an [...]
Obama Demonstrates Why ‘Government Efficiency’ Is a Joke
By the time I stopped working for Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), I had concluded that the pursuance of so-called “government efficiency” was largely a misguided waste of time for a politician who was interested in achieving smaller government. (I’ve been pleased to see my old boss spend more time trying to cut and eliminate programs since my [...]
GOP Fingerprints on the ‘Christmas Tree Tax’
The Drudge Report’s headlining of a Heritage Foundation story titled “Obama Couldn’t Wait: His New Christmas Tree Tax” has created quite a stir. In fact, it is being reported that the administration is now going to delay its implementation due to the outcry. Conservatives and Republicans are particularly incensed. However, it appears that they might want to rethink their [...]
Uh-Oh: Bipartisan Housing Commission Announced
The words “bipartisan” and “commission” usually send a chill down my spine. I felt such a chill when I learned that the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) had formed a Housing Commission to “address the long-term challenges facing a struggling housing sector.” My initial reaction was confirmed when I read that it would be chaired by former government [...]
‘Government Efficiency’: Trying to Turn Cats into Dogs
I’ll have more to say later on Mitt Romney’s speech on federal spending, but his banal call for making government more “efficient” gave me an opportunity to share some good commentary on the subject. In a recent piece criticizing Indiana’s Republican-led state government for not doing “anything substantive to improve Indiana’s budgetary, fiscal or economic position,” Craig Ladwig, editor [...]
GOP Hypocrisy on Energy Subsidies?
When the Solyndra scandal broke in September, I wrote that “Republicans should be careful when casting stones given their past and present support for energy subsidies.” The left has been ripping congressional Republicans for making political hay of the Solyndra affair after having lobbied the Department of Energy to bestow their constituents with similar taxpayer handouts. ThinkProgress released a [...]
Senate Spares Rural Development Subsidies
An amendment to a Senate appropriations bill introduced by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would have reduced funding for rural development subsidies at the Department of Agriculture by $1 billion was easily voted downtoday. Only 13 Republicans voted to cut the program. Thirty-two Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to spare it, including minority leader Mitch [...]
State Department Spreads Democracy. And Money
A friend points me to a recent article on Foreign Policy’s website written by a career State Department employee who spent a year in Iraq trying to “win the hearts and minds” of the Iraqi people. I’ve pretty much become numb to stories about government failure, but this one left me with my forehead planted on my desk. [...]
Spending Reform in Rick Perry’s Plan?
Texas governor Rick Perry’s “Cut, Balance, and Grow” plan is out. Dan Mitchell discussed Perry’s proposed tax reforms so I’ll offer my take on the proposed spending reforms: Perry says he wants to “preserve Social Security for all generations of Americans” but state and local government employees would be allowed to opt-out of the program. [...]
State Government Business Subsidies in the News
Federal energy subsidies to business are a hot national topic thanks to the Solyndra scandal. Flying below the radar—and deserving more national media attention—are grants and other targeted incentives given to businesses by state governments. There is little doubt in my mind that there are state-subsidized “Solyndras” waiting to be discovered. The Wall Street Journal took a step in [...]
Ron Paul’s ‘Plan to Restore America’
Presidential candidate Ron Paul has released a fiscal reform plan that would dramatically cut spending and rein in the size and scope of the federal government. My reaction to the proposal can be summed up in one word: hallelujah. Republican policymakers – including the current GOP field of presidential candidates – talk a good game about reducing [...]
Federal Workers’ Compensation Incompetence
A recent report from the U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general found that workers’ compensation costs for postal employees are unnecessarily high. The reasons according to the audit are stale federal laws and bureaucratic ineptitude at the USPS and the Department of Labor. The DOL administers workers’ compensation claims for federal employees – including postal employees – under [...]
Rep. Pompeo Wants to Terminate the Economic Development Administration
Chris Edwards and I have repeatedly called for policymakers to get specific when it comes to spending cuts. Policymakers who want to cut spending should at least pick an agency or program and work to have it eliminated. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) has done this by introducing legislation to terminate the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. What I really like [...]
Going ‘Page by Page, Line by Line’ through the Budget
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing Thursday on President Obama’s pledge to go “page by page, line by line” through the federal budget to eliminate programs “we don’t need.” I testified with an ideologically diverse group of budget experts. My testimony can be read here, but the following are [...]
