There’s a lot not to like about how much money the various agencies and departments of the U.S. federal government waste, but perhaps the most bizarre example from the 2014 Wastebook is the story of how the National Institute of Health (NIH) spent $387,000 over two years to provide Swedish massages to the feet…
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As we have noted, the Internal Revenue Service has been targeting those who advocate limited government and lower taxes, and calls this harassment “horrible customer service.” The IRS also sends billions to identity thieves and wastes more billions in improper payments. The federal agency generally fails in the fight against tax fraud. Now, as…
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On Election Day 2014, many voters in California will likely see at least one of 118 local bond measures on their ballots, with local government entities seeking permission to borrow a collective total $12.6 billion dollars as they also increase local property taxes to pay back the money being borrowed over the term of…
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This week voters in California will make the call on, count ‘em, 140 tax increases, from sales taxes to levies on soda and marijuana. If voters should wonder what is driving these tax increases, Mark Bucher of the California Policy Center has a few suggestions in his October 26 Sacramento Bee article headlined “Big…
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Oh, to be a bureaucrat in the U.S. federal government! What other jobs pay just as much or more than similar work done in the private sector, but with much, much more generous benefits? Which would appear to be even more generous than we previously knew, thanks to the discovery of a surprising new…
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We have been following the story of the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which came in ten years late, $5 billion over budget, and with lingering safety concerns. As we noted, UC Berkeley structural engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asi believes the bridge is unsafe and declines to use it. Governor Jerry…
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In the U.S. government’s just-completed fiscal year for 2014, there is a very large discrepancy between the “official” size of the budget deficit, $483 billion, and the amount by which the U.S. national debt increased, $1,086 billion (or $1.086 trillion, if you prefer). We’ve been digging through the Monthly Treasury Statements issued by the…
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David Rising, Randy Herchaft, and Richard Lardner of the Associated Press have discovered that a small group of ex-Nazis, including death-camp guards and SS soldiers, are drawing America Social Security payments to the tune of more than $1.5 million. According to the AP, the U.S. government allowed the suspected war criminals to continue collecting…
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It’s back! Senator Tom Coburn’s annual compendium of some of the zaniest ways that the U.S. federal government burns through all the money it taxes and borrows in the name of spending: the 2014 Wastebook! This year’s edition features over $25 billion worth of examples of bad decisions made by U.S. politicians and bureaucrats….
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Opponents of California’s so-called “bullet train” went to court contending that the funding plan for $68 billion high-speed rail project violated the ballot measure voters approved in 2008. A Sacramento court agreed, but the Third District Court of Appeal overturned the ruling. Now, as the Sacramento Bee recently reported, the California Supreme Court let…
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