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Posts Tagged ‘federal spending’

Political Alchemy, Part I: Turning Spending Increases into Tax Cuts

by Dan Mitchell

Politicians in Washington have come up with something far more impressive than turning lead into gold or water into wine. Using self-serving budget rules, they can increase the burden of government spending and say they are cutting taxes instead.

Mad_scientist

This bit of legerdemain is made possible, thanks to the convolutions of the personal income tax, by adopting or expanding refundable tax credits. But in this case, “refundable” does not mean the government is returning money to taxpayers. Instead, it means that money is being redistributed to people who do not earn enough to be subject to the income tax.

This is hardly a trivial issue. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the amount of income redistribution being laundered through the tax code is now so large that the bottom 40 percent of the population has a negative “effective” income tax rate. In simple terms (though perhaps with profound political implications), the income tax is a revenue generator for a big share of the population.

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Tags: 1040, Big Government, EITC, federal spending, Flat Tax
Posted Feb 8th 2010 at 12:57 pm in Congress, Economics, Flat Tax, News, Obama, Politics, Tax Reform, Uncategorized, federal spending | 7025045 Comments2010-02-08+20%3A57%3A34Dan+Mitchell

Wednesday Open Thread: Spending Edition

by Publius

From the fine folks at CATO Institute comes this chart, detailing the allocation of federal spending:

catospending020210

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Tags: debt interest, entitlement spending, federal spending, GDP
Posted Feb 3rd 2010 at 3:08 am in Open Threads | 6906276 Comments2010-02-03+11%3A08%3A38Publius

Reason.tv: Obama’s Doublethink Doubletalk (SOTU Remix)

by Nick Gillespie

George Orwell defined doublethink as “the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

When it comes to war, spending, and more, President Barack Obama’s 2010 State of the Union address showed that doublethink is alive and well in Washington, D.C.

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Tags: bank bailout, Barack Obama, federal budget deficit, federal spending, SOTU address
Posted Feb 2nd 2010 at 10:21 am in Congress, Defense, Economics, Education, Obama, federal spending | 6855457 Comments2010-02-02+18%3A21%3A56Nick+Gillespie

There Is some Budget Good News, but It Is Actually Really Bad News

by Dan Mitchell

The Office of Management and Budget has released the President’s FY2011 budget and the Congressional Budget Office has released its semi-annual Budget and Economic Outlook. Much of the coverage of these documents has focused on deficit numbers. This is not a trivial concern, particularly since the Bush-Obama policies of bigger government have dramatically boosted red ink.

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But the most important numbers in the budget documents are the estimates of what is happening to government spending. The good news is that burden of government spending is projected to decline over the next few years from about 25 percent of GDP to less than 23 percent of GDP.

That’s the good news.

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Tags: Big Government, budget, Bush, debt, Deficit
Posted Feb 1st 2010 at 10:11 am in Economics, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 6809869 Comments2010-02-01+18%3A11%3A42Dan+Mitchell

We Need a Real Spending Freeze and Tax Cuts

by Greg Knapp

freeze

Don’t you hate it when you go to a 50% off sale and then realize the store marked up all the prices in order to offer the big savings? Welcome to President Barack Obama’s spending freeze.

It’s hard to keep up with the shocking numbers under Obama. Federal spending was up 18% in his first year and the deficit was $1.4 trillion, almost three times greater than it was the previous year. That’s 9.9% of 2009’s GDP, more than three times the post World War II average. (Sorry, Barry, but you can’t blame it all on Bush. That budget was done under a Democrat House and Senate and signed by you. ) Depending on whose numbers you believe federal nondefense discretionary spending will increase another 7-10% for 2010.

The Congressional Budget Office says we’ll run at least another $1.35 trillion deficit. The average deficit for 2011-2020 will be around $600 billion per year. Even in Washington that’s a lot of money.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Big Government, federal spending
Posted Feb 1st 2010 at 8:37 am in Congress, Obama, Political Humor, Politics, Tax Reform, federal spending | 6801083 Comments2010-02-01+16%3A37%3A05Greg+Knapp

The Pork Report, January 26, 2009: Atlantic City Edition

by The Pork Report

Federal budget deficit will reach $1.35 trillion in 2010, and Congress is already planning to borrow billions more to pay for a new jobs bill and another war funding bill

Most TSA employees to receive performance-based pay hikes

Taxpayers spent more than $1.1 million to send members of Congress and their staff on junkets to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Denmark

More than half of the companies that have received federal stimulus dollars to do highway work in Massachusetts have a history of breaking the law

Monterey wine association receives $98,5000 federal stimulus grant

$2 million of federal stimulus money paying to teach Ohio residents how to cut, color and style hair

Atlantic City spends federal stimulus money to pay for more than $276,000 worth of playground equipment

Nearly three out of four Americans think that at least half of the money spent in the federal stimulus plan has been wasted, according to a new CNN poll

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Tags: congressional junket, Copenhagen conference, federal spending, government waste, stimulus program
Posted Jan 26th 2010 at 12:17 pm in Pork Report | 6550225 Comments2010-01-26+20%3A17%3A08The+Pork+Report

Calling another Stimulus a ‘Jobs Bill’ Won’t Make it Work any Better than Last Year’s Fiscal Flop

by Dan Mitchell

This new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity explains how last year’s so-called stimulus was a flop – and also reveals why politicians are pushing for another big-government spending bill.

Interestingly, since last year’s stimulus was such a disaster, the redistributionists in Washington are calling their new proposal a “jobs bill.” But as I say in the video, this is akin to putting perfume on a hog.

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Tags: Big Government, bureaucracy, bureaucrats, Earmarks, Economic Stimulus
Posted Jan 25th 2010 at 9:37 am in Congress, Earmarks, Economics, News, Obama, Politics, Tea Party, federal spending | 6488265 Comments2010-01-25+17%3A37%3A21Dan+Mitchell

Halleluiah! Obama Endorses Task Force to Look at Cutting Deficit After Tripling It His First Year

by Jim Hoft

Well, Halleluiah! Barack Obama says he wants to cut the spiraling national deficit.

Barack Obama tripled the national deficit last year.

This year Barack Obama is on track to nearly quadruple Bush’s 2008 budget deficit.

(CBO Estimates)

But don’t worry.

Barack Obama called for a task force today to come up with a plan to curb his spiraling budget deficits.

He’s serious.

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Tags: Barack Obama, budget deficit, deficit spending, federal deficit, federal spending
Posted Jan 23rd 2010 at 4:03 pm in Congress, News, Obama, federal spending | 64506171 Comments2010-01-24+00%3A03%3A30Jim+Hoft

Pork Report, January 22, 2009: Bureaucrats Gone Wild Edition

by The Pork Report

Bureaucrats gone wild! Taxpayers charged for international trysts, golf, skiing, and other government junkets

Military officials bought thousands of dollars worth of alcohol, food and other amenities for congressional overseas junkets

Delaware airport that “hardly ever sees a paying passenger” has received $12.3 million from the federal Airport Improvement Program for a runway construction project

Tennessee library pays for Rock Band video game session and Monday Night Football with a $5,000 federal Community Building Through Video Games in Libraries grant

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Tags: congressional junkets, Defense Appropriations, Earmarks, federal spending, Hurricane Katrina
Posted Jan 22nd 2010 at 6:50 pm in Pork Report | 6414256 Comments2010-01-23+02%3A50%3A04The+Pork+Report

The American People Reject Big Government

by Dan Mitchell

According to a Washington Post story, Obama wants to be the anti-Reagan, a President who permanently changes the American people’s attitude about big government. Obama’s efforts to make statism popular, however, are not exactly working out as he hoped.

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According to a new Washington Post-ABC poll, the American people have become much more libertarian when asked if that want a bigger government with more services or a smaller government with fewer services. But this is just part of the story. As David Boaz points out, more accurate polling data, which mentions that bigger government also means higher taxes, reveals that support for small government becomes even more pronounced. Here’s an excerpt from the Post story:

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Tags: Big Government, federal spending, Obama, Reagan
Posted Jan 19th 2010 at 12:51 pm in Economics, History, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 6164669 Comments2010-01-19+20%3A51%3A30Dan+Mitchell

America’s New Year’s Unemployment Hangover

by Rep. John Carter (R-TX)

One cannot drink oneself into sobriety. Yet that is precisely what Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration have attempted with our economy for the past year with predictable and painful results.

EmploymentRecessionsDec

Unemployment continues to stand at an official 10% for the third month in a row, the worst joblessness in 27 years. The real unemployment rate is far worse. Included in the December economic figures was a shocker – the percentage of adult men who are working has fallen to the lowest level in recorded U.S. history at just 80%. That means that one in five men in this country between 18 and 54 are neither working nor claiming unemployment. They have fallen completely out of the workforce.

That helps explain why December’s unemployment rate remained at November’s 10% rate in spite of an additional 85,000 Americans losing their jobs. At the same time the new jobless claims were added, many of the previously unemployed were simply removed from the workforce numbers altogether.

Economists estimate our true jobless rate as high as 17%, and that could grow in coming months as more Americans exhaust their unemployment benefits and lose homes to foreclosure.

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Tags: bailout, Barack Obama, cap-and-trade, congressional democrats, deficit spending
Posted Jan 13th 2010 at 1:59 pm in Congress, Obama, federal spending | 5936279 Comments2010-01-13+21%3A59%3A12Rep.+John+Carter+%28R-TX%29

Lessons of ‘66 and ‘94 Loom Over Democrats: Part I

by Thomas Del Beccaro

Midterm elections can present a considerable risk for a new President. Often viewed as a referendum on a President’s policies, the last 45 years featured such huge party losses as 54 House seats under Clinton, 48 seats under Ford, and 47 seats under Johnson. While Ford’s fate was not entirely his own, the fates of Johnson and Clinton present foreboding scenarios for Democrats in 2010.

lyndon

Johnson and Clinton: Unpopular Policies Lead to Midterm Losses.

In 1964, the Democrats were sitting atop the political world. They held 68 Senate seats and gained 36 House seats for an overwhelming margin of 295 to 140 – not to mention winning the White House. Just two years later, however, they lost 48 seats. Why? A series of policies that were unpopular including a “credibility gap” on the Vietnam War and what one Democrat Governor said was “Frustration over Vietnam; too much federal spending and… taxation; no great public support for your Great Society programs; and … public disenchantment with the civil rights programs.” Despite the economy growing 6% because of the Kennedy/Johnson tax cuts, the divide between Johnson’s policies and public opinion produced a 49% approval rating for Johnson and resulted in historic losses for the President and his party in 1966.

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Tags: 66 elections, 94 elections, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, economic recession
Posted Jan 12th 2010 at 5:42 am in Congress, Economics, Featured Story, Obama, Politics | 58658118 Comments2010-01-12+13%3A42%3A56Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Barack Obama and the Exhausted Presidency

by Paul A. Rahe

In a recent puff piece, The New York Times reports that our President is tired. This is not the first such report. Back in May, when he treated England’s Gordon Brown so shabbily, the excuse given — according to The Daily Telegraph – was that wrestling with the economic crisis had left Barack Obama too exhausted to be able to focus on foreign affairs.

We should perhaps discount what was said in May. For, as I have attempted to document in detail here, here, here, here, here, and here, President Obama is a gentleman, and, as such, he is never unintentionally rude. He is, in fact, a master of the insulting gesture, which he seems to reserve for political opponents, such as Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Sarah Palin, and for political leaders in countries, such as England, France, Germany, Israel, and Poland, which were closely associated with the United States prior to the Age of Obama.

This time, however, Barack Obama may be genuinely tired, and he may be depressed as well. He certainly has warrant. In public, he may claim that he deserves a B+ for his first year in office, but the polling data suggests that he has earned a failing mark, and he has to know better.

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Tags: Al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Beijing, Chinese relations, Christmas Attack
Posted Dec 31st 2009 at 5:41 am in Congress, Defense, Featured Story, Healthcare, Obama, Politics | 53670352 Comments2009-12-31+13%3A41%3A42Paul+A.++Rahe

Obama’s 6 Worst Policy Decisions

by Thomas Del Beccaro

obama

From Guantanamo to Health Care, Obama is certainly seeking to Change America – or more accurately -to accelerate the pace of change from a private enterprise-freedom based civilization to a Big Government-run society. According to Thomas Paine, “It is the duty of a patriot to protect his country from his government.” I realize that is a slightly different definition than Joe Biden would use, but nevertheless, in that light, here is my listing of the worst of his policy decisions:

6. Bailing Out GM. “His policy of public investments prevented necessary liquidations. The businesses he hoped thus to save either went bankrupt in the end, after fearful agonies, or were burdened . . . by a crushing load of debt. [He] undermined property rights . . .pushed federal credit into the banks and bullied them into inflating . . .” Historian Paul Johnson wrote that of Herbert Hoover. You can almost substitute Obama’s name for Hoover’s in every detail. By the way, Government Motors sales are declining at 3 times the rate of the industry as a whole. Hoover would be proud.

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Tags: auto bailout, Barack Obama, cap-and-trade, federal spending, Gitmo
Posted Dec 28th 2009 at 12:02 pm in Defense, Economics, Environment, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, federal spending | 52906392 Comments2009-12-28+20%3A02%3A52Thomas+Del+Beccaro

The Problem is Spending, not Deficits

by Dan Mitchell

Reckless spending increases under both Bush and Obama have resulted in unprecedented deficits, which is the reason for boosting the nation’s debt limit by an astounding $1.8 trillion. Government borrowing has become such a big issue that some politicians are proposing a deficit reduction commission, which may mean they are like alcoholics trying for a self-imposed intervention.

But all this fretting about deficits and debt is somewhat misplaced. Government borrowing is a bad thing, of course, but this video explains that the real problem is excessive government spending.

Fixating on the deficit allows politicians to pull a bait and switch, since they can raise taxes, claim they are solving the problem, when all they are doing is replacing debt-financed spending with tax-financed spending. At best, that’s merely taking a different route to the wrong destination. The more likely result is that the tax increases will weaken the economy, further exacerbating America’s fiscal position.

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Tags: Big Government, budget, budget deficit, Conrad, Deficit Commission
Posted Dec 21st 2009 at 11:37 am in Congress, Earmarks, Economics, Healthcare, Obama, Politics, Pork Report, Tax Reform, Uncategorized | 4678633 CommentsThe+Problem+is+Spending%2C+not+Deficits2009-12-21+19%3A37%3A40Dan+Mitchell

Let’s Be Frank, Mr. Vice President: The Stimulus Failed

by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA)

Today, the State of Georgia welcomes Vice President Joe Biden for an update on the administration’s so-called stimulus bill. With national unemployment sitting today at 10%, and worse in Georgia, the White House’s credibility on stimulus success is dubious at best. Yet as proper manners would dictate, we owe the Vice President an opportunity to make his case.

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President Obama tapped Mr. Biden to oversee the stimulus program because, as he put it, “nobody messes with Joe.” While that may be so, as the Vice President has been traveling around the nation touting the various spending priorities of the stimulus bill, their alleged benefits have yet to materialize into jobs. So if the Vice President is visiting to have us believe expanding broadband is how jobs are created or that we can “weatherize” our way back to prosperity, it may be Joe who is messing with Georgia.

It’s actually quite telling that the Vice President is visiting us to discuss the stimulus package on the same day that President Obama is setting off for Copenhagen to promote a job-killing National Energy Tax as a means to combat global warming. Because what was evident in the stimulus package, and has been reinforced through subsequent actions, is that this administration places a higher premium on its social goals than on putting people back to work.

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Tags: Al Gore, bailouts, economic growth, federal budget deficit, federal debt ceiling
Posted Dec 17th 2009 at 5:29 am in Congress, Economics, Featured Story, Obama | 4789852 Comments2009-12-17+13%3A29%3A11Rep.+Tom+Price+%28R-GA%29

Pork Report, December 8, 2009: Downhill Edition

by The Pork Report

Alaska’s $680 million bridge to nowhere still a state priority

17,000 Medicaid patients put on waiting lists for medical services in Maryland as the state misspends $98 million including paying for services for dead people

Medicare loses $60 billion to fraud every year

Democrat political consultants receive millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds; Millions more spent to heat a near-empty shopping mall, to search for fossils in Argentina, for socially conscious puppet shows, and to study the genetic makeup of ants

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Tags: federal spending, Medicaid waste, Medicare, Medicare fraud, National Science Foundation
Posted Dec 9th 2009 at 6:06 pm in Pork Report | 4385810 Comments2009-12-10+01%3A06%3A36The+Pork+Report

Obama and Democrat Leadership: Out of Touch and Desperate

by Heather Higgins

President Obama’s meetings at the Senate on Sunday, much like his visit to Copenhagen this week, are not indicators of inevitability; they are portents of panic. The reports coming out of the closed door, Democrats-only, meeting of internal divisions that are still irreconcilable, despite the high rhetoric of historic moment, only make the point more vividly: can you say “desperation”?

barack_obama_19-1

The sensible Democrats know they are in trouble. They know the American people have lost confidence that the Administration and Congress share their priorities.

While polls consistently show that Americans are increasingly concerned about jobs, reviving the economy, and managing our deficits, the Democrats fixate on health care, a relatively low priority for most Americans and anathema for many in this form. The reforms the Democrats push are themselves unpopular, and for good reason. Americans know that a government takeover of health care will diminish the quality of care, reduce our ability to control our treatment options, and drive up the premium costs for many Americans. It’s not just the health care system that will suffer, but proposed reforms will also cripple one of the few sectors that have been creating jobs during the recession, create multiple new taxes and penalties, and further hamper the economy by creating massive new debt and entitlements.

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Tags: cap-and-trade, carbon emissions, Copenhagen conference, deficits, economic recession
Posted Dec 8th 2009 at 7:23 am in Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics, Tea Party | 42678129 Comments2009-12-08+14%3A23%3A43Heather++Higgins

Pork Report December 1, 2009: Dollars For Donuts Edition

by The Pork Report

The Senate earmarks $500,000 for itself; Money will be spent to promote Senators’ appearances

House of Representative’s expense reports now online

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent $2,993 in taxpayer money on flowers in just a few months and House Majority Whip James Clyburn spent hundreds of dollars on donuts

Congress steers millions of taxpayer dollars to campaign donors’ pet projects including an earmark for “mammal awareness”

The Justice Department has instructed federal agencies to honor contracts with ACORN despite ban on funding passed by Congress and signed by the President

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Tags: ACORN, campaign donors, Department of Justice, doj, federal spending
Posted Dec 1st 2009 at 3:07 pm in Pork Report | 3928615 Comments2009-12-01+22%3A07%3A32The+Pork+Report

Pork Report November 30, 2009: Stimulus Snafus Edition

by The Pork Report

Tens of thousands of TSA screeners to receive government bonuses, including millions of dollars paid to more than 10,000 who have been rated poorly

Government bailout watch: Despite receiving $5.5 billion in stimulus funds, Government Services Administration’s backlog of deferred maintenance projects now totals $8.8 billion and the agency is proposing billions of dollars in new projects

As stimulus money doubles Wisconsin’s weatherization budget, a review finds weatherization work done on hundreds of low-income homes failed to meet federal standards; Inspectors found projects done in a way that could threaten the safety of residents or did not save enough energy

Stimulus funds pay to replace “unattractive” streetlights; The new lights “aren’t especially energy-efficient, and the old ones work”

Federal Reserve tries theater ads to improve its image

Las Vegas’ $4.1 million housing plan built on federal stimulus money stalled over squabbles about how to hand out the money and to whom

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Tags: bike paths, eminent domain, Federal Reserve, federal spending, Government Services Administration
Posted Nov 30th 2009 at 4:56 pm in Pork Report | 3877028 Comments2009-11-30+23%3A56%3A22The+Pork+Report

Pork Report November 20, 2009: B-I-N-G-O Edition

by The Pork Report

U.S. Department of Justice funds spent on “Bingo Nights” in Ohio

Who wants $1.5 million in stimulus funds? Apparently, no one.

$25,000 stimulus grant will provide a week of “free” concerts in Sacramento

Less than one percent of Columbus commuters ride bikes, but more than a half-a-million dollars of federal stimulus funds to add downtown bike facilities

Hollywood’s Elegance International makeup school getting a $80,000 stimulus grant and Wild Boar Media, which “writes and dreams up new animation, stories, comics and toys” receives $50,000 in stimulus assistance

Congress long ago earmarked $87 million for a commuter rail line in Georgia, but the state has spent little of the money

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Tags: bingo nights, earmark, federal spending, fraud and waste, spending fraud
Posted Nov 20th 2009 at 3:49 pm in Pork Report | 3451016 Comments2009-11-20+22%3A49%3A53The+Pork+Report

Mr. President, Where Are the Jobs?

by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)

Americans are hurting – there is no doubt. Unemployment is at a record high and since Speaker Pelosi has been in the Speaker’s chair, 8.7 million more people are unemployed. What’s even more frightening is that 3 million of those jobs have been lost just since the misnamed stimulus was shoved through Congress less than a year ago. So where are the jobs?

Earlier this week, we learned that Recovery.gov, the official Administration website charged with reporting abuse was its own worst offender. It is full of fake stimulus jobs in fake Congressional districts. It also shows that $3 million couldn’t even produce a single job in South Carolina’s fake 43rd district. Somehow, $1.8 million was spent for 1.4 jobs in the fake 00 district. This would be funny, but the money belongs to taxpayers, not the government.

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Tags: federal spending, federal stimulus, federal waste, GAO report, phantom districts
Posted Nov 20th 2009 at 6:57 am in Congress, Economics, News, Obama, Politics | 3407088 CommentsMr.+President%2C+Where+Are+the+Jobs%3F2009-11-20+13%3A57%3A48Rep.+Joe+Wilson+%28R-SC%29

Obama Stimulus Numbers: The Return of Enron-Style Accounting

by Mike Flynn

The Sarbanes-Oxley Law was rushed through Congress in the wake of an enormous corporate accounting scandal that shook Wall Street and investors across the country. CEO’s and officers at several large companies were found to have “cooked the books”; i.e. knowingly falsified earnings statements to maintain stock prices or propel them higher. The practice came to be known as, Enron-Style Accounting.

enron

The new law had many provisions, but one of its more sweeping was the requirement that corporate officers and executives assume personal responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of financial reports. In some cases, corporate officers could face civil or even criminal penalties if the numbers they reported to the public turned out to be inaccurate.

If only the law applied to politicians.

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Tags: accounting scandals, Enron, federal spending, Franklin Center, GAO
Posted Nov 19th 2009 at 6:47 am in Economics, Featured Story, News, Obama, Politics | 3349082 Comments2009-11-19+13%3A47%3A45Mike+Flynn

Health Care ‘Reform:’ $500 Hammers and the Reverse Economies of Bureaucratic Scales

by Thomas Del Beccaro

At the center of the health care debate is the simple – but profound – question of whether government can deliver services, in this case health care services, better than private enterprise sensibly regulated. President Obama clearly believes that the ‘public option will not only be more equitable but more efficient as well – a claim he made when he spoke to the Joint Session of Congress earlier this year. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

ist2_168272-golden-hammer

The reason Obama is wrong, and the Left in general on issues of public options versus private enterprise, is simple human nature. When it comes to such matters, it was never so well explained as by the legendary Milton Friedman:

“There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government.”

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Tags: Barack Obama, bureaucracy, federal spending, government health care, Government spending
Posted Nov 17th 2009 at 10:21 am in Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 3211033 Comments2009-11-17+17%3A21%3A26Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Real Obama Miracle: Creates Jobs AND Congressional Districts With Wave of Hand

by Publius

From ABC News:

6a00d8341c145e53ef010536f053df970c-800wi

Here’s a stimulus success story: In Arizona’s 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have beensaved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that’s what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.

There’s one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.

And ABC News has found many more entries for projects like this in places that are incorrectly identified.

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Tags: Barack Obama, congressional districts, federal spending, job creation, recovery.org
Posted Nov 17th 2009 at 9:03 am in Congress, Economics, News, Obama, Politics | 3236296 Comments2009-11-17+16%3A03%3A37Publius

Coburn to Senate: You Actually Have to Pay For These Bills

by Capitol Confidential

The Democrats are holding a press conference at this afternoon to blast Senator Tom Coburn’s demand that new programs and increased spending approved by Congress be paid for.

At issue is a veterans bill that the Senators would like to pass and issue press releases praising themselves for supporting over Congress’ Veterans Day vacation. Problem is the bill is not paid for and therefore is just another bounced checked to be charged to future generations of Americans who are already inheriting the $12 trillion debt created by Congress’ reckless addiction to borrowing and spending. In addition to not being paid for, the bill discriminates against many vets who sacrificed for our nation and were injured as a result.

coburn letter –

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Tags: debt ceiling, deficit spending, federal debt limit, federal spending, Senate Democrats
Posted Nov 9th 2009 at 12:19 pm in Congress, Politics | 2781830 Comments2009-11-09+19%3A19%3A04Capitol++Confidential

Pork Report November 3rd: Merry-Go-Round Edition

by The Pork Report

Merry-Go-Round Museum receives federal funds

Federal funds pay to put on a ghostly journey to the most haunted places in Illinois

The shopping mall to nowhere; $5 million stimulus grant to heat an “almost-empty mall”

Stimulus grant pays to keep tabs on how often doctors and nurses wash their hands at hospitals in Maryland

Agency that misspent public funds on a casino junket and $700 worth of coffee and lost a child on a field trip slated to receive $159,000 in stimulus funds

Stimulus saves or creates jobs for illegal aliens; Company that the federal government knew was intentionally hiring hundreds of illegal immigrants awarded $6.7 million in federal contracts—including nearly $1million in stimulus money—during the past year

Many of the jobs counted as being “saved” by the federal stimulus program “definitely wouldn’t have been lost in the first place, and others might not have been lost at all”

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Tags: federal funds, federal spending, jobs created, jobs saved, merry-go-round
Posted Nov 4th 2009 at 2:31 pm in Uncategorized | 2563811 Comments2009-11-04+21%3A31%3A17The+Pork+Report

Stimulus Job Creation = Bigger Government

by Veronique de Rugy

On Friday, in the name of holy transparency, the White House released the list of jobs created or saved with the stimulus funds. Now, let’s assume that the government can create jobs even though it can’t. Let’s assume that “job saved” is not the lamest excuse for government spending I have heard in my life time as a budget analyst. And let’s look at what this data means.

usgovjobs

The White House claims that 640,329 were created or saved. That, by the way, is way less than what Christina Romer claimed would be created. Last week, she mentioned 1.4 million during a Joint Committee hearing. Remember.

First, $159 billion has been spent so far. That’s $248,273 per job.

However, when you look at some specific contracts that were awarded you find that some jobs were created or saved at an insane cost to taxpayers. For instance, $1,359,633,501 were awarded to CH2M WG IDAHO LLC, in WA to create 2,183 jobs. That’s $622,827 per job. That’s not as bad though as the $258,646,800 awarded to the Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC in NY, to create 25 jobs. That’s over $10.3 million per job.

I would be happy with one of these jobs.

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Tags: Christina Romer, federal spending, government grants, government jobs, job creation
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 at 4:03 pm in Economics, Obama, Politics | 2420651 Comments2009-11-02+23%3A03%3A20Veronique++de+Rugy

Pork Report October 30, 2009: A Caboose To Nowhere Edition

by The Pork Report

California sculpture competition paid for with a Federal Transportation Enhancement Activity grant

A top FEMA official admitted there is no way to assess the effectiveness of homeland security improvements made from the $29 billion spent since 2002

Homeland Security funds spent on a equipment that was never used and probably will be never needed

$1.5 million federal grant will pay to renovate a train station which hasn’t been used in three decades and may never be used again

A $78,280 federal Transportation Enhancement Grant paying to relocate and renovate a caboose not used in decades

Department of Commerce pays to send Ohio Chamber of Commerce members on a two week junket to China

$500,000 in federal funds expected to pay for a party to celebrate St. Augustine’s 450th birthday

The National Park Service will spend more than $300,000 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway

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Tags: Blue Ridge Parkway, federal spending, FEMA, Homeland Security, junket
Posted Oct 30th 2009 at 5:58 pm in Congress, Pork Report | 2328623 Comments2009-10-31+00%3A58%3A35The+Pork+Report

Pork Report October 22, 2009: Vegas Neon Museum

by The Pork Report

Las Vegas Boulevard, littered with strip bars and casinos, named a National Scenic Byway, making it eligible for federal funds to promote the strip

Las Vegas’ Neon Museum receives $300,000 federal grant to restore two signs

National park superintendent who viewed thousands of sexually explicit images on a government computer during work hours will not be fired and has been reassigned to another job within the National Park Service

Washington Wine Commission receives federal funds to promote wine in Mexico and India

Federal funds to teach wine-makers about popular varieties of grapes

The $3.7 million Department of Education grant will pay to teach the Tlingit language, currently spoken by less than 200 people

$446,000 federal grant paid for a 10-day Tlingit language immersion retreat at Glacier Bay Lodge for a few more than 30 people

The Center for Wooden Boats receives federal stimulus funds to hire an assistant boatwright

Michigan Department of Human Services may have improperly spent $163.8 million of federal dollars intended to assist vulnerable children

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Tags: boatwright, Center for Wooden Boats, federal spending, Glacier Bay Lodge, government waste
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 6:45 pm in Congress, News, Politics | 198589 Comments2009-10-23+01%3A45%3A34The+Pork+Report