Posted on June 12th, 2013 by Deborah Collier
The adoption of wireless communications has grown from 48.7 million subscribers in 1997 to 321.7 million subscribers in 2012. Despite the increased use of this innovative technology, the wireless industry is one of the most heavily taxed in the nation. The U.S. average state and local sales tax for most goods and services is currently [...]
Filed under: Taxes, Technology, Telecommunications | No Comments »
Posted on May 31st, 2013 by Tom Schatz
As the Illinois legislature winds up the 2013 session by creating a new $750,000 “Forever Green Illinois Program” (it’s really there on pp. 8-9 of the 284-page budget bill) that would fund the “maintenance and beautification of greenery,” including grass, weeds, trees, shrubs, bushes, and plants on state or local government property, elected officials should also consider adopting a new official [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Big Government, Budget, Debt, Deficit, State Issues, Taxes, Uncategorized, Waste | No Comments »
Posted on May 15th, 2013 by Silence Dogood
By now I am sure you have heard that the IRS targeted and harassed Tea Party and conservative groups that were trying to obtain non-profit status. If a group used words like “tea party” or “patriot” in their organization’s name or the phrase “making America a better place to live” it was enough to raise [...]
Filed under: Big Government, Corruption, In The News, Scandal, Taxes | No Comments »
Posted on April 11th, 2013 by Silence Dogood
We were provided a joint analysis of President Obama’s budget by the House and Senate Republican Budget Committees. Here is all you need to know about President Obama’s budget proposal that was released yesteday. It is over two months late. It never balances the budget. It spends $154 billion more in 2014. Provides for additional [...]
Filed under: Big Government, Budget, Debt, Deficit, Taxes | No Comments »
Posted on March 25th, 2013 by PJ Austin
If you thought that there couldn’t possibly be any other embarrassing details about federal agency conference spending, I regret to inform you that you were wrong. It was discovered on Friday, March 22, 2013 that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) spent $60,000 in 2010 on a Star Trek parody video and a Gilligan’s Island parody [...]
Filed under: Budget, Taxes | No Comments »
Posted on February 28th, 2013 by Leslie Paige
According to an article in The Washington Times, that’s the amount of time the President gave Republican leaders in Congress this week to discuss the sequester. Now they plan to meet again on Friday, March 1. That also happens to be the day the sequester takes effect. Wow! How does the president find the time [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Big Government, Budget, Congress, Debt, Deficit, Reform, Small Government, Taxes | No Comments »
Posted on February 25th, 2013 by Luke Gelber
Last night, as you may have heard, America’s film industry threw itself a massive party, and while some of the attendees looked to be in danger of starving, none of them looked especially poor. Anyhow, today the media is buzzing over Ang Lee’s upset and the 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence’s win for Best Actress. However, before [...]
Filed under: Big Government, Taxes, Waste | No Comments »
Posted on February 20th, 2013 by Deborah Collier
The 911 system is a valuable emergency communications tool available nationwide, and supported, in part, through fees typically designated as either 911 funds or enhanced 911 (E-911) fees. Those fees are deposited into funds that are supposed to be set aside for improvements to the 911 emergency calling systems for both wireline and wireless devices [...]
Filed under: State Issues, Taxes, Telecommunications, Waste | No Comments »
Posted on September 5th, 2012 by Luke Gelber
It has long been clear that, when monitoring the activities of the federal government, one must often suspend natural expectations for sanity and integrity. For example, anyone who fails to pay taxes should be last in line to collect benefits paid for by taxpayers. But if the results of four reports are any indication, tax [...]
Filed under: Budget, Taxes, Waste | No Comments »
Posted on August 27th, 2012 by Deborah Collier
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is looking for ways to pay for its plans to expand broadband Internet to every household in America using the Connect America Fund (CAF). The CAF is part of the FCC’s recent reform of the Universal Service Fund (USF) which was created to provide telecommunications services in unserved and underserved areas [...]
Filed under: Broadband, Internet, Taxes, Technology | No Comments »
