In a serious blow to transparency, and well, democracy, House Democrats may not allow amendments to their healthcare bill. According to the The Hill: A House Democratic leader strongly hinted Friday that amendments won’t be allowed on the healthcare bill. But Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a key player in the healthcare debate, said Friday he [...]
Filed under: Healthcare | 1 Comment »
For the first-time homebuyer tax credit, that is…according to Dow Jones anyway. I am skeptical, but maybe the release of those dismal “Cash for Clunkers” numbers, coupled with last week’s revelations about the level of fraud in the program have them worried.
Filed under: Appropriations, Bailouts, Budget, Corruption, Deficit, Pork, Scandal, Stimulus, Taxes, Transportation, Waste | No Comments »
The Washington Post confirmed today what most of us had already thought, when you are on an appropriations committee that gets to spend hundreds of billions of dollars, there is bound to be some shenanigans. According to the Washington Post: Nearly half the members of a powerful House subcommittee in control of Pentagon spending are [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Corruption, Defense, Earmarks | No Comments »
Way back when the “stimulus” bill was first proposed, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) advised taxpayers that this would be filled with wasteful spending programs. Later, after it passed, CAGW identified some of these wasteful programs here, here and here to cite just a few examples. Now that the Obama Administration is claiming that the huge spending bill [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Budget, Pork, Scandal, Stimulus, Waste | 4 Comments »
Congress passed the Interior and Environment appropriations bill last night, bringing the total it has completed to five. The bill includes $32.3 billion worth of funding, which is $4.7 billion, or 17 percent, above last year’s total. Several Republicans protested the spending increase. According to an October 29, 2009 article appearing on CQ.com, Rep. Jerry [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Budget, In The News, Pork | No Comments »
This from Politico yesterday in blog commentary related to the Pelosi healthcare monstrosity: CBO: Public option premiums higher than private plansThe public insurance option would typically charge higher premiums than private plans available in the exchange, according to the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House bill. That surprising conclusion raises doubts about Democratic promises [...]
Filed under: Appropriations, Budget, Corruption, Deficit, Entitlements, Healthcare, In The News, Medicare/aid, Pork, Reform, Regulation, Scandal, Taxes, Waste, Wastewatcher | No Comments »
Bloomberg News Columnist Caroline Baum has an excellent takedown of the White House’s claims on jobs creation: When the government distributes lucre or loot, people spend it. If your interest is national income accounting, spending other people’s money is great. Spending is a back-door way for government statisticians to measure what matters, which is the real [...]
Filed under: Bailouts, Budget, Deficit, Reform, Regulation, Stimulus, TARP, Taxes, Waste | 2 Comments »
This story on the U.S. military’s strategy to combat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan aired this morning on NPR. It is a fascinating story, but what it brought to mind immediately was the work done several years ago by a friend and fellow waste warrior, Major Eric Egland, an Iraqi war veteran who was involved with [...]
Filed under: Pork | No Comments »
Waaaaay back in February when Congress passed and the President signed the stimulus bill there was $7.2 for broadband. Of that amount, $4.7 billion was designated to the National Telcommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). According to NTIA’s website: BTOP provides grants to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure in unserved [...]
Filed under: Broadband, Stimulus, Technology, Telecommunications | No Comments »
For years Citizens Against Government Waste has been critical of net neutrality. The concern is that government intervention will kill the massive amounts of private sector spending that has turned the Internet into a powerful tool for businesses and people. Net neutrality is generally defined as a system that allows information on the Internet to [...]
Filed under: Internet, Technology, Telecommunications | 1 Comment »
