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Archive for October, 2013

Another Government Snitch Surge


Thursday October 31st, 2013   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 9:30am PDT   •   0 Comments

As we noted last year, the federal National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) wants a “black box” in all new cars and light trucks to track speed, braking, seatbelt use and such before a car makes impact in a crash. The black boxes can’t be disabled and raise alarms that government could easily misuse the…
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The Benefits of Cash for Clunkers


Thursday October 31st, 2013   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 7:03am PDT   •   2 Comments

Before Obamacare reared its ugly head, President Obama’s signature economic achievement was the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which is perhaps better knows as the “Stimulus Bill.” The highest profile part of that act was the federal government’s Car Allowance Rebate System, better known as the “Cash for Clunkers” program, where people could…
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Scrambled Obamabuse


Tuesday October 29th, 2013   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 9:08am PDT   •   1 Comment

Those tuning in last week to hearings before the House Energy and Commerce Committee witnessed a spectacle of fatuity and evasion from CGI Federal Inc., the outfit responsible for healthcare.gov. CGI boss Cheryl Campbell could not explain why the website does not work as advertised. It did not emerge that CGI Federal Inc. has…
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Where to Draw the Line on a Budget Compromise?


Sunday October 27th, 2013   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 2:07pm PDT   •   2 Comments

Stanford’s John Taylor has produced an invaluable chart for visualizing the difference between the House and Senate budget proposals, which is really what the debate about raising the debt ceiling and the partial government shut down is about: He describes the information visualized in the chart and provides his two cents: The chart shows…
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Government Pepper-Spray Payout Spices Up Waste


Friday October 25th, 2013   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 9:31am PDT   •   0 Comments

In recent years the vaunted University of California has been bulking up its vast bureaucracy and imposing steep tuition and fee hikes on students. As we noted last year, when students responded with peaceful protests, campus cops pepper-sprayed them in the face at point blank range. Lt. John Pike, who deployed the spray, claimed…
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Climbing a Mountain of Spending


Thursday October 24th, 2013   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 6:43am PDT   •   2 Comments

First, let’s take a look at how the United States’ total public debt outstanding has changed since January 2, 2008: Now, let’s look at the biggest reasons behind how it got there, courtesy of the International Monetary Fund: If anyone asks why the national debt has grown so much, just tell them that the…
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Federal War on the Press, Continued


Wednesday October 23rd, 2013   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 10:29am PDT   •   2 Comments

The current executive branch of the federal government claims to be the most transparent in history but actually shows unprecedented hostility toward the news-gathering process. That is not a Tea Party press release but an ongoing story that emerged in some detail in a recent CSPAN session headed by Leonard Downie Jr., former executive…
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IRS Giveaway Sweepstakes, Continued


Monday October 21st, 2013   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 9:43am PDT   •   3 Comments

As we recently noted, longtime Long Island resident Carol Cooke received tax refunds for thousands of dollars, all to people who did not live at her residence. This was obvious fraud but when Cooke contacted the IRS they gave her the runaround. This was not an isolated case. A full 23,994 tax refunds were…
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Lessons From a Tax Bill


Friday October 18th, 2013   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 10:45am PDT   •   0 Comments

Federal and state governments always deserve attention but county governments send out the property tax bills. The envelope of mine read: TAX BILL – OPEN IMMEDIATELY No exclamation point necessary. The tone is, “let’s have the wallet, Jack. And let’s have it right now.” Government likes the imperative mood. Inside the taxpayer learns that…
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A Continuing Failure of Leadership


Thursday October 17th, 2013   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 2:52pm PDT   •   0 Comments

The partial federal government shutdown came to an end early in the morning of Thursday, October 17, 2013, and the United States’ national debt ceiling was increased, as the nation’s leaders essentially agreed to kick the can down the road for another three months. If no budget agreement is reached by January 15, 2014…
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