For some months now the story has been going around that California is experiencing an economic turnaround. As Ben Boychuk noted in City Journal California, the story “describes a state emerging from a decade of fiscal darkness to reclaim its place as an innovative, diverse, entrepreneurial haven.” The tale may be compelling but remains…
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The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge cost $6.4 billion, $5 billion more than the original estimate, and came in ten years late. Despite the long delay serious safety issues remain. These prompted Caltrans geologist Michael Moore to call for a “criminal investigation,” but that never took place. Instead state senator Mark De…
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Last summer, on July 8, 2013, President Obama reported on how well his initiative to use technology, and specifically, information technology, to improve the performance of federal government agencies was coming along. Let’s flash forward to May 28, 2014, nearly a year later, to a little noticed GAO report that documents how effectively the…
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As we recently noted, the Veterans Administration has been cooking the books and falsifying information about wait times. According to CNN, at least 40 veterans died while awaiting treatment at the VA facility in Phoenix. President Obama says he’s angry over the situation but he has not fired VA boss Eric Shinseki. Now, as…
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Some excerpts from the Office of the Inspector General’s report on the Department of Veterans Affairs’ bureaucrat-led fraud of the real conditions at Phoenix’s VA hospital and a number of other VA facilities, the first of many we will be hearing in the news. We’ll present the results in a Q&A style format: How…
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Jon Ortiz of the Sacramento Bee has dubbed the State Board of Equalization (BOE) headquarters in the state capitol as a “Terror Tower,” with good reason. Since the 24-story office building opened 21 years ago, taxpayers have “shoveled about $60 million into combating defects that have plagued the tower, including invasive mold, leaking windows,…
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Taxpayers calculating the cost of government should remain on full alert for waste on all fronts, but particularly in the military. Consider, for example, this story in the Daily Beast about the new fleet of presidential helicopters. These will be “the most expensive helicopters ever made,” with each one logging in at $400 million,…
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The trust fund in question is Social Security’s Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund, which is set to be fully depleted sometime in 2016. Brianna Ehley of the Fiscal Times has the details on the fund that provides up to 20% of the money paid to recipients of Social Security disability benefits: According to the…
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According to the official government website, “The President’s vision for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to transform VA into a 21st Century organization that is Veteran-centric, results-driven, and forward-looking.” So no surprise that “the President’s 2015 Budget includes $163.9 billion for VA in 2015. This includes $68.3 billion in discretionary resources and…
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As Josh Hicks reports in the Washington Post, the U.S. Postal Service lost $1.9 billion in the second quarter, and the losses come despite increases in revenues, higher prices for stamps, and a boost in USPS package shipping. The losses, Hicks notes, mark “the 20th time in the last 22 quarters in which the…
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