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Waste Watch
Taxpayers Shell out Millions for the House and Senate
The cost to run the U.S. House and Senate is staggering.
Taxpayers Shell out Millions for the House and Senate
Thursday, July 12 2012, 10:15:34 AM
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IRS doled out $92 million in employee bonuses More than $92 million in bonuses averaging $5,500 per employee have been handed out by IRS executives to thousands of the tax agency’s employees since 2009, according to data obtained by The Washington Examiner.
IRS Targets: 93 of the Tea Party Groups Rarely Active; Works with Small Budgets The AP reviewed 990 tax returns for nonprofit groups that were made publicly available and posted on both the Guidestar and the Foundation Center websites, searching between 2009 and 2011 under the terms "tea party," "patriot" and other terms frequently used by tea party groups.
Failing VA officials collected massive bonuses for years Top executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters and in regional offices across the country routinely collected merit and other bonuses for more than five years that in some cases totaled more than $100,000, The Washington Examiner has found.
Feds Help Fund Pole Dancing – For Linemen An Austin, Texas dance company has received a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant for its upcoming performance featuring electricity linemen dancing on utility poles.
Report: Fisker could be biggest taxpayer loss since Solyndra The luxury hybrid maker Fisker Automotive is in dire financial straits after receiving $192 million in government-backed loans and receiving market assistance from tax credits, and if the company goes bankrupt it could become the largest loss to taxpayers since the failure of Solyndra in 2011.
Bomber Benefits: Tsarnaev family received $100G in benefits The Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance — a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to Section 8 housing from 2002 to 2012, the Herald has learned.
Deficit-Fighting Congress Will Spend Millions on Unwanted Army Tanks The US Army is kind of over the M-1 Abrams tank. At more than $7 million a pop, there's not much call for the heavy gas-guzzlers on modern battlefields. But some of the most conservative self-styled deficit hawks on Capitol Hill refuse to do away with their treaded gravy train.
How Much Did Sheila Jackson Lee’s ‘Round-the-World Trip’ Cost You? Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a noted anti-gun advocate and staunch opponent of voter ID laws, in February took a “round-the-world trip” that cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $23,646, Roll Call reports.
IRS issued billions in improper refunds, report says The Internal Revenue Service issued more than $11 billion in improper payments through its Earned Income Tax Credit program last year, according to an inspector general’s report released this week.
GAO calls for national federal real estate strategy The Government Accountability Office is calling for a national strategy to help the federal government resolve the challenges of managing its multibillion-dollar real estate portfolio, including the lingering issue of selling vacant or underutilized properties it no longer needs.
Congress Prepares $100 Million Bipartisan Flu Tax Congress is preparing to take action on a bipartisan proposal to raise taxes on flu vaccines. This is not a tax on the wealthy, but rather on a broad swath of Americans, or at least those who choose to be immunized against the flu.
Feds spend at least $890,000 on fees for empty accounts This year, the government will spend at least $890,000 on service fees for bank accounts that are empty. At last count, Uncle Sam has 13,712 such accounts with a balance of zero.
Gov’t Spending $152,500 to Study Voice Therapy for Transgenders “This study will illuminate the capabilities of the human larynx and inform the relationship between voice production and perception,” states a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, awarded to George Washington University.
Improper contract management may be costing Air Force Billions of dollars in Air Force projects may have cost more than they were worth, according to a report by the Inspector General for the Department of Defense.
Waste of Money?: Proposed ban on violent video games in public spaces “It’s the typical waste of taxpayer money and effort that capitalizes on a national tragedy to support a culture war agenda,” Christopher Ferguson, a professor of psychology at Texas A&M who has researched and written extensively about the impact of violent video games on their players, said.
Questions About The Salary of Federal Employees Key members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested an analysis Thursday to help determine the “appropriateness” of the federal pay scale.
National Park Service to Spend $40,000 Looking for Bat Caves in California The National Park Service is setting aside $40,000 in taxpayer funds for a “potential partner to collaborate on a project to identify the location of bat hibernacula within Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI) in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.”
5 Govt Videos Every Bit as Terrible as the IRS Star Trek Parody...and You Paid For Them! Just how rotten and outrageous is the IRS' notorious Star Trek training video that cost $60,000 to produce? It's so bad the William Shatner - the man, the myth, the legend who played the interplanetary poon hound Capt. James T. Kirk on the original series - is appalled.
EPA Settlement: Company Must Spend $76,952 to Replace Light Bulbs As part of a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Collins Inc. of Clinton, Iowa has agreed to a “re-lamping” of its facility with low-mercury fixtures at a projected cost of $76,952.
Federal Times: DoD still swamped by excess parts For almost a quarter-century, the Government Accountability Office has said the military’s management of equipment and parts stockpiles is one of the government programs most vulnerable to waste, fraud and mismanagement.
U.S. News: How Taxpayer Money Gets Lost in the Wind In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to eliminate federal programs that are "excess weight." If the president still wants to keep this promise, he could start by tackling federal subsidies for wind energy, which a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says are rife with wasteful spending.
Few Senators sacrifice pay following sequester budget cuts Only a few senators are planning to forfeit a portion of their salaries to charity or the U.S. Treasury while sequestration is in effect, according to a survey conducted by The Hill.
HHS Report Shows Tens of Millions Lost in Medicare Overpayment A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General shows nearly $70 million lost in Medicare overpayments to suppliers of durable medical equipment – most of which will go unrecovered.
Tax Freedom Day 2013 is April 18 -- Five Days Later than Last Year April 18 will be Tax Freedom Day, the day when Americans have worked enough to pay all of their federal and state taxes for 2013 – a round total of $4.22 trillion, according to an analysis done by the Tax Foundation.
Failed Iowa entrepreneur awarded $112 million for Obamacare co-ops Federal officials awarded $112 million to fund new Obamacare health insurance cooperatives in Iowa and Nebraska to a group whose politically connected chief financial officer recorded at least three business flops since 2009.
Anti-Waste Senator Coburn: Fire federal emplyees who are ‘paid to do nothing’ Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, says that federal employees who don’t do their jobs should be laid off before critical employees like food inspectors and air traffic controllers are furloughed due to sequestration.
Colorado lawmakers aghast at state agency’s ‘shopping spree’ Colorado state lawmakers reviewing an audit of how the Department of Revenue ran its medical marijuana enforcement program half-jokingly called for oxygen Wednesday when they learned of what one senator called a “shopping spree” for expensive furniture, unnecessary electronics and a fleet of cars that went largely unused.
Biden's One-Night Paris Hotel Tab: $585,000.50 As it turns out, Vice President Joe Biden's London stay in February was not the most expensive part of his trip. A government document released on February 14, 2013 shows that the contract for the Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand came in at $585,000.50.
Senate Democrats block effort to end USDA/Mexico food stamp promotion partnership Democrats prevented an effort to block funds for the Agriculture Department’s “partnership” with the Mexican government, which is aimed at promoting nutrition assistance programs among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.
FL Moves to Ban EBT Card Use at Strip Clubs Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that would ban those receiving government assistance from using their electronic benefits (EBT) cards at strip clubs, casinos, liquor stores, and gun stores.
Feds pay for study on why lesbians are fat A Harvard-affiliated hospital will study why so many lesbians are overweight, thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the federal government.
‘Oz’ film costs Michigan taxpayers $40 million Thanks to Michigan’s film subsidies, the production of Disney’s “Oz the Great and Powerful” forced the state to pay nearly $40 million to Hollywooders critics consider the Wicked Witch of the West.
Medicare paid $5.1B for poor nursing home care Medicare paid billions in taxpayer dollars to nursing homes nationwide that were not meeting basic requirements to look after their residents, government investigators have found.
REPORT: John Paulson May Move To Puerto Rico To Avoid A Gigantic Tax Bill According to Bloomberg's Stephanie Ruhle, Katherine Burton, and Zachary Mider, hedge fund manager John Paulson is considering leaving New York to go to Puerto Rico, where a tax loophole would let him reduce taxes on the $9.5 billion he has in his own hedge fund.
Maine governor takes on USDA to fight food stamp fraud Maine Gov. Paul LePage blasted the United States Department of Agriculture for denying his request for a waiver to allow the state to require food stamp recipients to provide photo identification when using their electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards as way to cut down on fraud.
New Phone App Tracks Government Waste Federal spending seems more outrageous when it hits close to home, and now smart phone users are able to monitor government waste instantly with the “Open the Books” mobile phone application.
Fiscal hawks say government waste, unspent funds could offset sequester Republican Sen. Tom Coburn has identified several programs at the Pentagon he'd set aside, including a video called "grill sergeants" in which the instructors show their favorite recipes; money for a plan to send a space ship to another solar system; funds to find advancements in beef jerky from France; and $6 billion on questionable research, including what lessons about democracy and decision-making could be learned -- from fish.
A watery waste of taxpayers’ money TO MISSOURI lawmakers, it’s a common-sense community development project. To what seems like almost everyone else, it’s a bizarre waste of taxpayer money and an ecological disaster that a few members of Congress refuse to drop.
High-flying Holder: Report shows AG, FBI director used luxury jets for personal travel Two high-tech luxury jets that the FBI convinced Congress were needed for the fight against global terrorism have instead been used to ferry around Attorney General Eric Holder and his predecessors, as well as FBI Director Robert Mueller, according to a government report released this week.
Why Should Taxpayers Give Big Banks $83 Billion a Year? On television, in interviews and in meetings with investors, executives of the biggest U.S. banks -- notably JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon -- make the case that size is a competitive advantage. It helps them lower costs and vie for customers on an international scale. Limiting it, they warn, would impair profitability and weaken the country’s position in global finance.
Rand Paul returns surplus operating budget Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul says he will send a $600,000 check to the U.S. Treasury, returning the part of his operating budget as a senator that was not spent.
Insurer with NY's 'worst' record of complaints gets $340M Obamacare loan A health insurance company headed by an old friend from when President Obama was an Illinois state senator got a $340 million federal loan to establish Obamacare co-ops in New York, New Jersey and Oregon despite having a chronic record of consumer and regulatory complaints.
Medicare, Congress waste $334 million by overpaying for infusion drugs Because Congress locked some drug costs at 2003 prices, Medicare has wasted $334 million dollars over the last six years by failing to buy medication at the best possible discount, according to a new investigation that reinforces just how prevalent waste and abuse are inside the government's main health program for senior citizens.
Contractor Whose Company Got Nearly $500M in IRS Contracts Says He Didn't Have Personal Relationship With IRS Staffer Braulio Castillo, owner of Signet Computers, told CNSNews.com today he did not have a personal relationship with any Internal Revenue Service employee after the Associated Press reported that the House Oversight Committee was investigating whether a personal relationship between an IRS employee and Castillo "produced a series of government contracts worth about $500 million."
House GOP majority leader calls World of Warcraft research grant 'government waste' "The National Science Foundation spent $1.2 million paying seniors to play World of Warcraft to study the impact it had on their brain," reads the statement from Rep. Eric Cantor, calling the "pay to play video games" study an example of government waste.
IRS Audit: Agency wastes taxpayer cash on Blackberrys and aircards Everyone always wants the latest technology, but a government auditor said Tuesday that the IRS wasted millions of dollars on BlackBerrys and wireless modem aircards that employees don’t need or even use.
10 Biggest Risks That Threaten Taxpayer Dollars Climate change is a new addition to the 30 “high” risks confronting federal government finances, according toa report issued by the Government Accountability Office. The risk list—updated for each session of Congress—targets programs with “greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement or the need for transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges.”
Waste: Biggest Porker of 2012? See the Nominees Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) announced the nominees for its 2012 Porker of the Year. People may cast their ballots for the candidate they think was the most reprehensible Porker in 2012 in an online poll at www.cagw.org
Administration Will Spend $1.8B to Build 20-Mile Railroad on 30-Mile-Wide Island The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that $1.55 billion in new federal tax dollars will be allocated for the first-ever Hawaiian Transit Rail system on the island of Oahu, which will serve downtown Honolulu, at a total federal and state cost of $5.1 billion.
"Obama Phones": Millions Improperly Claimed U.S. Phone Subsidies The U.S. government spent about $2.2 billion last year to provide phones to low-income Americans, but a Wall Street Journal review of the program shows that a large number of those who received the phones haven't proved they are eligible to receive them.
IRS cracking down on ID theft, tax fraud With tax filing season heating up, the Internal Revenue Service is mounting an aggressive crackdown against identity theft and tax refund fraud.
Government is wasteful enough that sequestration is acceptable, witnesses say House hearing exploring ways to curb waste and duplication in government showcased an apparent consensus that there may be little harm in allowing the roughly 8 percent across-the-board agency spending cuts scheduled to kick in March 1 to actually take effect.
Watchdog: Fannie, Freddie may have lost over $3B A federal watchdog has found that government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may have lost more than $3 billion from big banks' alleged rigging of a key interest rate.
Energy-Cutting Measures Working So Well That Utility Customers Now Facing New Fees Last week, some customers of an Arizona utility company were a shocked by the notice they received along with their monthly bill. The bill stuffer informed them in the coming months they would see a new charge in light of the success of energy efficiency measures.
Report: Gov't allowed high pay at bailed-out firms A government report criticized the U.S. Treasury Department for approving "excessive" salaries and raises at firms that received taxpayer-funded bailouts during the financial crisis.
Maryland Co. creates $150k post for bus studies Some government officials and residents question the necessity of the position and whether a person who oversees two studies should receive such a big paycheck
You're Paying for Bill Clinton's Cinemax (See the bill) That’s just one eyebrow-raising expense a former occupant of the White House has been allowed to put on the taxpayer tab every year, even though every living ex-president is quite wealthy.
Watchdog sees pork in Sandy relief bill The House of Representatives today passed a package of more than $50 billion in Hurricane Sandy relief that will provide immediate aid to disaster-stricken areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, despite a flood of Republican opposition.
OK Governor spends half-a-million out of state Half-a-million tax dollars in Oklahoma.. sent out of state. A State Representative calls the Governor a hypocrite for turning back millions of Federal dollars, and now using money he says we don't have.(From our sister station in OKC)
Charlotte Observer: New state tests waste tax dollars The barrage of new state tests being rolled out this year is “an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars” that won’t help kids, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison said.
Second VA official quits after wasteful conferences spotlighted Another top Department of Veterans Affairs official has resigned in the wake of Inspector-General reports criticizing two "Patton parody" employee training conferences, The Washington Examiner has learned.
Hollywood Gets Tax Incentive Extension in Cliff Deal Section 317 of the freshly approved legislation includes an extension for "special expensing rules for certain film and television productions." Congress first enacted production tax incentives favorable to the domestic entertainment industry in 2004, and extended them in 2008, but the deal was meant to expire in 2011.
'Fiscal Cliff' Deal Includes 'NASCAR Tax Credit' The "fiscal cliff" deal reached by the Senate and the White House on New Year's Eve, and passed in legislative form by the Senate early New Year's Day, includes many giveaways to special interests--including an extension of a perk enjoyed by "motorsports entertainment complexes" otherwise known as the "NASCAR tax credit."
Obama Returns to Hawaii at an Added Cost of Over $3 Million In a move that is rich in irony, President Obama agreed Tuesday night to sign an emergency deficit reduction bill that does almost nothing to rein in spending and then jetted out to Hawaii to resume his vacation at an extra cost of more than $3 million to taxpayers.
'Sandy Bill' Becomes Mini Auto Bailout The legislation to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy has been turned into something of a mini auto bailout, according to those familiar with the Obama administration's request. The request includes millions of dollars worth of cars, to be paid for by the federal government.
IRS aims to clarify investment income tax under healthcare law The Internal Revenue Service has released new rules for investment income taxes on capital gains and dividends earned by high-income individuals that passed Congress as part of the 2010 healthcare reform law.
5 More Ways The U.S. Government Wastes Your Money With exploding debt, you might think your representatives in Washington appreciate the need to crack down on wasteful spending. As this article will demonstrate, that's wishful thinking.
Why Congress Might Abandon the Debt Ceiling Ezra Klein points out that Senate GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed chucking out the debt ceiling in the summer of 2011.
Government spent more than $16 billion on advertising, marketing in last decade The government has spent more than $16 billion over the last decade on outside advertising, marketing and public relations contractors, feeding a cottage industry of inside-the-Beltway and Madison Avenue firms that help federal agencies burnish their images and tailor their messages, an investigation by the Washington Guardian and Northwestern University's Medill News Service has found.
FHA projected to exhaust reserves, could need bailout The Federal Housing Administration, which has played a crucial role in stabilizing the housing market, said it ended September with $16.3 billion in projected losses -- a possible prelude to a taxpayer bailout.
Watchdog: Coburn report IDs $68 billion in DOD spending cuts The Pentagon is squandering billions of dollars annually on everything from its own brand of beef jerky and microbreweries to religious debates involving mythical Klingons from the TV show "Star Trek," according to a scathing report on military spending issued today by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Rules fail to restrain big-spending VA officials Big-spending U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials got star treatment when they planned a $6.1 million pair of controversial human resources training conferences in Orlando last year.
Quarter-billion-dollar stimulus grant creates just 400 jobs Battery maker A123 Systems vowed thousands of new jobs when it received a nearly quarter-billion-dollar stimulus grant in late 2009, but federal job-tracking figures show only a few hundred positions were created before the company joined a growing list of federally backed energy businesses that ended in bankruptcy.
Spending on White House dinners soars under Obama President Obama has spent far more lavishly on White House state dinners than previous chief executives, including nearly $1 million on a 2010 dinner for Mexico's president, according to documents obtained by The Washington Examiner.
Bored workers play cards at clean energy firm that got federal funds Workers at a Michigan electric car battery making firm that got millions of federal economic recovery funds have so little to do that they sit around playing cards, watching movies and reading magazines.
TARP cost $24 billion, says CBO Originally projected to have made a profit for taxpayers, a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the Troubled Asset Relief Program instead cost $24 billion.
Taxpayer-Backed Green Energy Firms Subpoenaed by Federal Watchdog The Treasury Department’s top watchdog has opened an investigation into a popular grant program that helped finance a host of green energy projects, according to a recent SEC filing by one of the companies under investigation.
Fraud, Waste, and Abuse In Government-Run Medical Programs A report prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) providesconclusive evidence of overbilling fraud on a massive scale ...
Biden’s claim that the Romney tax plan would raise Social Security taxes Cue the scary music. Having repeatedly — misleadingly — beaten up the GOP presidential ticket for its plan to overhaul Medicare, Vice President Biden traveled to Florida last week to allege that Mitt Romney plans to raise taxes on Social Security benefits.
Amtrack Shows Government Waste At Work: The 16 Dollar Hamburger Your Taxes Fund In a nation where Barbie says that "math is hard," people still have the math skills to understand that Amtrak's $16 burger that sells for $9.50 is a bad deal. Maybe the world's worst premium-priced burger could be the symbol that finally opens the floodgates of real reform.
Stimulus-Funded Housing Project Installs Anti-Bedbug Sauna A Portland, Oregon public housing complex – partially funded by federal stimulus dollars – is using a specially built "bedbug sauna" to combat infestation of the tiny parasites.
CBO: Even with subsidies, electric cars are still uncompetitive Federal subsidies for new electric cars still aren’t enough to make them competitive with conventional gas-powered cars and traditional hybrids, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report.
VA admits spending $100 million on conferences in 2011 t turns out the Department of Veterans Affairs spent $100 million on conferences last year - not the $20 million it previously claimed - and it didn't account for that money to a Congressional committee demanding details, either.
Solyndra lawsuit: Full refund to taxpayers Many Americans were upset when solar-panel maker Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last September owing taxpayers more than $500 million, but retiree Robert Grady Jr. was different. The more he read about the failed company, the more irritated he became. Read more: Solyndra lawsuit: Full refund to taxpayers
GM denies losses of $49,000 on every Chevrolet Volt General Motors is dismissing a media report describing the Chevrolet Volt, its extended-range electric car, as a major money loser. Those reports, the automakers says in a statement, are "grossly wrong."
Administration: Bingo Games Can Promote Food Stamp Use The USDA wants to add to the record 46.7 million Americans who receive food stamps, including seniors the agency says could be convinced to sign up for the government program through parties featuring games like Bingo and crosswords.
CBO: Under Current Law, Unemployment Will Rise Next Year to 9.1% The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is projecting that if changes in federal taxing-and-spending policies already enacted and set to take effect at the beginning of next year do in fact take place, the unemployment rate will climb to 9.1 percent.
California Spending More On Prisons Than Colleges, Report Says There's a direct relationship between how much money the Golden State spends on prisons and how much it spends on higher education, according to a report put out by the non-partisan public policy group California Common Sense. When one goes up, the other goes down.
$10 Trillion Withdrawn From U.S. Treasury This Fiscal Year Alone, Treasury Says Although the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal government will spend $3.563 trillion in fiscal year 2012 and the White House Office of Management estimates it will be $3.795 trillion, actual withdrawals from the U.S. Treasury have already exceeded $10 trillion.
GSA official reprimanded for planning party to celebrate herself The General Services Administration’s Julia Hudson was ready to party last month, inviting roughly 1,200 federal employees to celebrate the second anniversary of her appointment as the scandal-scarred agency’s National Capital Region administrator.
Report: US Health Care System Wastes $750B A Year The U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year — roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar — through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, the influential Institute of Medicine said Thursday in a report that ties directly into the presidential campaign.
Washington Guardian: Dem congressman spent donations on family trip, graduation The House Ethics Committee is taking more time to review allegations that a congressman representing New Jersey misused campaign funds by spending them on personal expenses, including a family trip to Scotland and a high school graduation party for his daughter.
VA spent millions on six days of Hawaii games More than $2.5 million was spent last year by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on a six-day series of sporting events for aging veterans at a posh Hawaiian resort.
Solyndra investors could reap tax windfall Two investment companies stand to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks under a bankruptcy exit plan for failed solar company Solyndra, government lawyers say.
Watchdog: VA spent $90K on conference coffee breaks The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $90,747 on coffee and refreshments during morning and afternoon breaks at a pair of training conferences in Orlando last year.
D’oh! US Postal Service wasted $1.2 million on ‘Simpsons’ stamps The U.S. Postal Service — which is currently in the throes of snowballing debt — wasted $1.2 million on the production of “Simpsons” themed stamps, according to an inspector general’s report.
You Paid $52,000 for a Movie Parody for a Commercial A $52,000 parody of the opening sequence in the movie "Patton" commissioned by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and paid for with taxpayer dollars was released by the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Pentagon says it spent $208 million on conferences Department of Defense (DOD) officials have spent more than $200 million since 2007 hosting conferences on topics ranging from protecting combat forces to breast cancer research.
More Taes or Spending Cuts? CBO Says We Must Decide Congress‘ chief scorekeeper warned that the country’s top lawmakers can’t continue to put off big decisions on the budget and the economy much longer, and said either path — belt-tightening now or even deeper cuts later — will be painful.
Labor Department spends stimulus funds for ads during Olbermann, Maddow shows The Labor Department paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus funds to a public relations firm to run more than 100 commercials touting the Obama administration’s “green training” job efforts on two MSNBC cable shows, records show.
Some House freshmen getting comfortable with Washington ways A new Sunlight Foundation analysis finds extensive evidence that more than a few of the 2010 freshmen are giving in to Washington's ways on the campaign finance and lobbying fronts.
Some California ‘Meter Maids’ Are Making Nearly $100K a Year Brian Calle at the Orange County Register notes that for just 10 Hermosa Beach state employees, taxpayers are paying more than $1 million in bloated salaries, health, and retirement benefits. These are not highly-trained specialists, but what are sometimes referred to as “meter maids” .
Former TARP IG met 'huge, huge resistance' from Treasury, DOJ Neil Barofsky, the first and now-former Special Inspector-General for the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (SIGTARP), says he met "huge, huge resistance from day one" within and without the federal government and on Wall Street in his effort to investigate how the $700 billion expenditure was administered, what was done with the tax dollars by the banks and other financial institutions that received loans through it in the great bailout of 2008, and whether the effort accomplished what Congress intended.
USDA spends $2M, gets one intern, program fails United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials spent $2 million on an internship program that had one intern, as it failed to use properly $63 million in federal funding provided for USDA to protect itself from hackers.
New GM's turn to subprime loans could prevent bailout payback to taxpayers Revelations that the New General Motors is using increased subprime lending to power its recent sales may doom any chance that taxpayers will ever recover the still-unpaid chunk of the $49.5 billion the federal government spent in 2009 bailing out the former auto industry giant.
Solyndra Applauds: "Bank of Washington" Solyndra’s CEO labeled President Barack Obama’s administration “The Bank of Washington.” Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/02/obamas-bank-of-washington-applauded-by-solyndra-ceo-in-email/#ixzz22QaEx2Bo
How to rip off the taxpayer: SIGTARP shares secrets Investigators overseeing the federal bank bailout program have turned up multiple ways dishonest bankers tried to scam taxpayers out of their money -- a whole bunch of their money.
U.S. Audit: $200M Wasted on Iraqi Police Training U.S. auditors have concluded that more than $200 million was wasted on a program to train Iraqi police that Baghdad says is neither needed nor wanted.
Who Will Pay For $7 Billion Amtrak Renovation? Amtrak is proposing a $7 billion transformation of Union Station, intended to triple passenger capacity and transform the overcrowded station into a high-speed rail hub for the Northeast.
Medicare Bonuses? Guess Who's Getting Them? House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa berated a top Obama administration official at a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday over a Medicare bonus program that federal investigators say is ineffective and should be cancelled.
Ron Paul wins: House votes to audit the Federal Reserve House lawmakers voted today to have an independent audit the Federal Reserve take place, a process that will probe the Wall Street bailouts and other Federal Reserve decisions since the 2008 financial crisis.
GAO: 2011 Debt Ceiling Showdown Cost $1.3 Billion A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that last year’s debt ceiling showdown between House Republicans and the White House cost the government $1.3 billion – increasing market uncertainty and raising federal borrowing costs.
Woman Who Exposed GSA Waste Also Wasting Your Tax Dollars? An internal website on the GSA’s vast computer network showed images of Ms. Brita at another wasteful GSA conference. This time, she wasn’t the whistleblower, but just another high-level GSA official having a good time
Earnings Show Recession May Be 'Fast Approaching' While this quarter's earnings reports have crossed a substantially lowered profit bar, future expectations through the year indicate a recession could be on the way.
35 states got too much stimulus funding Thirty five of the 50 states got more economic stimulus funding to help them with their Medicaid budgets than they should have, according to the Inspector-General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-IG).
Troubled federal agency paid for cooking classes, hosted holiday video contest Amid an ongoing congressional probe into the General Services Administration, a CNN investigation has uncovered more evidence of wasteful spending at the agency, including cooking classes for employees that cost as much as $3,350 per class.
NASCAR wins fight to keep taxpayer funding A deeply divided House voted to continue letting the Pentagon use taxpayer money to sponsor sports leagues and teams — a victory chiefly for NASCAR, which had fought feverishly to maintain tens of millions of dollars that go to some of its teams every year.
Should You Be Taxed... Just to Drive? The San Francisco Bay Area is considering a long-range plan to become the first place in the nation to tax drivers for every mile they travel, with an average bill of up to $1,300 per year.
Gov. Wants Road Repaired So Michelle Obama Doesn't Have a Bumpy Ride In an effort to prevent Michelle Obama from enduring a bumpy ride to a fundraiser at his Berkshire mansion, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s office has requested that town officials plug potholes on the road to his residence.
Busted again! GSA spent $270,000 on one-day awards ceremony Fresh off the Las Vegas conference scandal that cost the General Services Administration (GSA) chief her job, House investigators have learned of a one-day GSA awards ceremony that cost over $270,000 in 2010.
Energy Dept. 'Unable to Locate' $500,000 in Equipment Bought With Stimulus Money An audit conducted by the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General was "unable to locate" $500,000 worth of equipment purchased with stimulus money by a recipient of funds distributed through the deparment's “Advanced Batteries and Hybrid Components Program,” according to an audit report published by the OIG.
New Jersey Cities Abusing Pension Law May Waste Millions New Jersey local governments failed to remove hundreds of contractors such as lawyers and engineers from pension rolls, which may cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year of improper payouts, a state audit shows.
Circuit Court of Appeals Cancels Lavish 2013 conference Amid Controversy Under pressure from Republican senators over its upcoming conference in Hawaii, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has canceled next year's scheduled meeting in Monterey, citing budget constraints.
Congresswoman calls out government waste; Another "meeting" with your money An engineering and research division within the Commerce Department called NIST held a conference in Orlando in May. The Congresswoman says her evidence shows the conference cost significant tax dollars without obvious benefits for taxpayers.
Senators tell judges to cancel Hawaii junket Senate Republicans told the 9th Circuit Court to cancel its mid-August trip to Hawaii, saying the court failed to prove why the trip was necessary even though it had been given weeks to respond.
After Solyndra Failure, DOE Official Calls Energy Loan Program an ‘Enormous Success’ During a hearing on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) loan guarantee program for “green” energy projects on Thursday, DOE Loan Program Office Acting Executive Director David Frantz had some surprising news: contrary to report, after report, after report, the program has actually been an “enormous success.”
Are You Willing to Foot the Bill For Another Stimulus? A few Federal Reserve policy makers said the central bank will probably need to take more action to boost the labor market and meet its inflation target, according to minutes of their June meeting.
Taxpayer’s Right to Know Act Will Cost Taxpayers $100M to implement The Congressional Budget Office has found that a proposed bill that aims to provide detailed publicly available reports of federal programs will cost $100 million to implement over a five year span, Federal News Radio reports.
PA town slashes employees to minimum wage http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/09/political-statemate-leads-to-city-workers-salaries-cut-down-to-minimum-wage-in/
CBO: Federal spending dropping but trillion-dollar deficit still likely The federal government ran a $60 billion deficit in June and is already more than $900 billion in the red this fiscal year, but there is some bright news: basic government spending appears to be dropping, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.
Transportation Workers Receive Big Pay Hikes, Worth It? The average salary of TxDOT's 10 highest paid workers topped $200,000 as of April 1 — 21.4 percent above that average a year earlier. The top three salaries, at an average of almost $251,000, were 42.5 percent higher than the top three salaries' average a year earlier.
Gov’t Waste: Michigan Using Tax Dollars to Fight Drunk Driving With — ‘Interactive Urinal Communicators’? In preparation for what they expect to be a rowdy, booze-fueled Fourth of July holiday, the Michigan State Police’s Office of Highway Safety Planning is distributing 400 “Interactive Urinal Communicators” that warn patrons about drunk driving to restaurants and bars in four different counties (Wayne, Bay, Ottawa and Delta).
A $6 billion nuke shack? Department of Energy officials concede that existing government installations can handle everything they want done at their proposed $6 billion Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility
With No Vote, Taxpayers Stuck With Tab on Bonds Surprised local taxpayers are finding themselves obligated for parking garages, hockey arenas and other enterprises that can no longer pay their debts
Army told to spend or lose mobile tech funds The Pentagon is planning deep spending cuts this year to a new mobile computing network for soldiers — a move that critics say punishes Army technology buyers for not spending appropriated funds fast enough.
Senate: No taxpayer cash for conventions A bipartisan push to eliminate millions of federal dollars earmarked to each party’s conventions was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate.
$267B more to Operation Twist The Federal Reserve announced it is committing $267 billion for continuing Operation Twist, the central bank’s program to keep long-term interest rates low and stimulate the economy.
Actor Sues DMV (and taxpayers indirectly) for Backing Out of Reality Series Ashton Kutcher's production company is suing California's Department of Motor Vehicles for allegedly getting cold feet and backing out of a deal to participate in a reality series based on its employees. Since it's the DMV, is he also inidrectly suring CA taxpapers?
Was Clemens trial waste of taxpayers' money? Column: So when is enough, enough? How much of our money has to be wasted on "trophy" trials that result in acquittals before the government changes its foolhardy ways?
$9 Billion in ‘Stimulus’ for Solar, Wind Projects Made 910 Final Jobs -- $9.8 Million Per Job The Obama administration distributed $9 billion in economic “stimulus” funds to solar and wind projects in 2009-11 that created, as the end result, 910 “direct” jobs -- annual operation and maintenance positions -- meaning that it cost about $9.8 million to establish each of those long-term jobs.
Kan. company suspected of Medicare fraud for penis pumps A new report by federal auditors says a Kansas-based company may have paid out as much as $4.2 million in potentially fraudulent Medicare claims for penis pumps, and the auditors are asking the company to refund the government the money.
Panel unveiling docs on DOE aid recipients; More Solyndras? An Energy Department employee used a private email address to send confidential information to a company that went on to get a $1.4 billion partial loan guarantee from the agency.
How Many Limos Do D.C. Departments Own? In these troubled economic times, it is perhaps not surprising that the federal government is a bit touchy on the question of just how many limousines it owns and operates.
USDA subsidizes advertising for almonds, wine tours in California and organic pet shampoo Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn released a report exposing inefficiency and waste in the USDA’s Market Access Program (MAP), which has spent $2.1 billion since 1999 on subsidies for profitable agriculture companies and trade associations that do business overseas.
Waste, fraud in Iraq put all eyes on DoD contracting A commission's final report declared between $30 billion and $60 billion lost to waste and fraud and sounded alarms about, what it called, the inadequate acquisition workforces at the Departments of Defense and State.
Auto Bailout or UAW Bailout? The Treasury Department expects taxpayers to ultimately lose more than $20 billion on the Detroit auto bailout. President Obama defends those losses as necessary to prevent the domestic auto industry from collapsing.
Senate spent at least $381k since 2011 printing feel-good declarations The U.S. Senate has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on printing costs associated with passing simple resolutions declaring observances such as “National Chess Day,” “National Safe Digging Month” and the “Year of Water.”
CBO: Federal debt to double in 15 years Federal debt will double by the middle of the next decade and reach more than twice the size of the entire U.S. economy by 2037 unless Congress changes course on taxes and spending, the Congressional Budget Office said in its latest analysis.
Top GSA official tried to hide report on Vegas bash A top administrator at the General Services Administration who worked on President Obama’s presidential transition team sought to keep secret the agency report that uncovered massive waste at a lavish taxpayer-funded GSA conference in Las Vegas, records show.
VP Biden Spends $1 Million Annually for Weekend Trips Important: The cost of flying Air Force Two is $22,000 an hour, so each half-hour trip to or from Delaware costs about $10,000. Each golf game costs taxpayers $20,000. At that rate, the annual cost to taxpayers of Biden’s weekend trips is well over $1 million.
GSA Paid $1 Million in Bonuses to Staff Under Investigation The General Services Administration paid more than $1 million in bonuses to employees while they were being investigated for wrongdoing by the agency’s inspector general, a U.S. lawmaker said.
Gov't spends $2.8M on free internet for Tampa residents The program is called AccessALL Tampa. The idea is to help low-income families get access to the Internet. But after one year and $2.8 million in local and federal dollars spent, some say the program isn’t worth it.
Senator Tom Coburn on the “Debt Bomb” That We All Will Face Coburn: “The reason I’m known as ‘Dr. No’ is because I actually believe in the Constitution. I believe in the enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8. I believe the Constitution was filled with nos for us in Washington and yesses for everybody else in America.”
Feds Propose New Rules to Fight Foodstamp Fraud Food stamp recipients are ripping off the government for millions of dollars by illegally selling their benefit cards for cash — sometimes even in the open, on eBay or Craigslist — and then asking the government for replacement cards.
Ninth Circuit court takes million-dollar trip on taxpayer dime. Judges, lawyers and staff from the federal district, appeals and bankruptcy courts in the famously liberal Ninth Circuit are planning a million-dollar trip to the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa August 13-16, at taxpayers’ expense.
Solar Company Admits Using Your Tax Dollars to Create Jobs Overseas The chairman of First Solar, speaking to a House subcommittee on Wednesday, admitted that his taxpayer-backed company has created more jobs overseas than it has within the United States. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/16/first-solars-3-1-billion-in-doe-loan-guarantees-created-mostly-overseas-jobs-video/#ixzz1v3W5HDgg
You Paid for It! Stimulus Dollars Fund Studies into Sexual History and Erectile Dysfunction There are questions about two grants totaling nearly $1.5 million dollars distributed to the University of California San Francisco. The money was part of the federal stimulus program and went to studies into the erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men and the accurate reporting of someone's sexual history.
HHS Sends $5.9 Million to Program Run by Obama Buddy The Department of Health and Human Services last week announced it had awarded a $5.9 million grant to a University of Chicago Medical Center program tied to Michelle Obama and run by Eric Whitaker, one of President Obama’s closest friends.
Is TSA Wasting Millions of Your Tax Dollars? A new congressional report accuses the Transportation Security Administration of mismanaging its acquisition and management of airport screening equipment by storing millions of dollars in high-tech gear in a Texas warehouse instead of deploying it to airports
AP Exclusive: Waste watchdog got no-bid contract Gov. Rick Scott's chief of staff helped steer a no-bid consulting contract worth $360,000 to a friend who now leads a task force rooting out state government waste. Steve MacNamara was still working for the Florida Senate when he recommended Sarasota business consultant Abraham Uccello for the contract to streamline the Legislature's computer systems.