For years the Open Source crowd has been talking about free software as an alternative to paying for software. They claim that it can save money and be the start of the realization of a world where nothing costs money. Unfortunately, free software ain’t free. Numerous studies have shown there are very real costs to [...]
Filed under: Internet, Technology, Telecommunications | 1 Comment »
Earlier this Spring, President Barack Obama was going to demonstrate his commitment to efficiently spending the taxpayers’ dollars by calling on his cabinet to find waste in programs under their jurisdiction. He ordered them to find $100 million in waste within 90 days. This may sound like a lot of money, but keep in mind [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Budget, Deficit, Earmarks, Entitlements, In The News, Pig Book, Pork, Reform, Waste | 3 Comments »
During the week of July 6, the Social Security Administration held a conference at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, a location so luxurious it is called “the Jewel of the Desert.” The SSA estimated that the cost of the event was $700,000. Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) Leslie Paige was tipped off to this story after [...]
Filed under: Pork | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, House Democrats unveiled yet another convoluted, fiscally irresponsible healthcare “reform” package. If you’re worried about the Senate proposals that are currently in the pipeline, just wait until you get a load of this new House version: The 1,018 page House bill will cost roughly $1.3 trillion according to preliminary Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates. [...]
Filed under: Budget, Entitlements, Healthcare, Reform, Regulation, Retirement, Taxes | 4 Comments »
The General Services Administration just announced a plan to spend $18 million to revamp Recovery.org. Smartronix Inc., a Maryland-based firm, who was awarded the contract, will receive the money in two increments, $9.5 million through January 2010 and then the remaining $7.5 million throughout 2014. The effort to shed much needed sunshine on the stimulus [...]
Filed under: Pork | 3 Comments »
They swore up and down that the stimulus bill would be free of the cloying stench of political inlfuence, that members of Congress would have no hand in directing the $787 billion in funds….well, we never believed for a nanosecond that this Congress, overcrowded as it is with Me-Too hacks and earmark grubbers, would have the discipline to let that [...]
Filed under: Pork | 2 Comments »
Nicola Moore with the Heritage Foundation wrote a good item last week pointing out that Obama’s happy talk about how his massive government expansion will lead to our being able to spend our way out of the recession is misleading at best. In her blog post, Obama’s Budget Is More Expensive Than Initially Thought, she highlights [...]
Filed under: Bailouts, Budget, Deficit, Entitlements, Pork, Stimulus, Taxes, Waste | 1 Comment »
Last week I wrote an article for the June issue of Wastewatcher entitled Stimulating the Dead. Sending stimulus checks to dead people does not help the economy. Little did I know that this is not a new practice of the Social Security Administration (SSA). They have been doing this for years. What’s worse is that [...]
Filed under: Budget, Corruption, Deficit, Entitlements, Pork, Retirement, Social Security, Stimulus, Taxes, Wastewatcher | 1 Comment »
Many Americans are unaware that the military maintains a specially outfitted VIP fleet out of Andrews Air Force Base that can cost up to $10,000 per hour to operate. Members of Congress often take advantage of these military aircraft for overseas travel, even in instances where commercial flights are readily available and more cost-effective. On July [...]
Filed under: Pork | 2 Comments »
