The recent report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change echoed the usual warnings, but one of the report’s 235 authors offered something of a new spin. Sivan Kartha, a senior scientist with the Stockholm Environment Institute’s US Center in Somerville, Massachusetts, told NPR, “There’s no single techno-fix, there’s no silver bullet,…
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When calculating the cost of government, taxpayers should never forget the Internal Revenue Service and its institutionalized waste. As an official report notes, between October 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012, the IRS gave more than $2.8 million in bonuses to 2,800 employees with “recent substantiated conduct issues resulting in disciplinary action.” So the…
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April 15, the deadline to file returns, looms large on the calendar of many Americans. That date, unfortunately, fails to give taxpayers the full picture of how much of their money government is taking. As the Tax Foundation explains that task falls to Tax Freedom Day, the day when the nation as a whole…
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One of the more disturbing trends that we’ve seen develop with the federal government’s bureaucrats in recent years is the growing extent to which they are placing their interests ahead of those of the American people. What makes what we’re seeing develop so disturbing is that we’re not just seeing the work of a…
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“This thing is working.” That was President Obama on April 17. “This thing” is Obamacare, and the president says 8 million people have signed up and the so-called Affordable Care Act is covering more people at less cost than most would have predicted just a few months ago. In typical style, the president included…
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In yet another example of how government bureaucrats look out only for their own interests, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service is paying out over $1 million in bonuses to 1,150 of its employees who have failed to pay their tax bills in previous years. Stephen Ohlemacher of the Associated Press reports on the findings…
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The current salary of a U.S. congressman is $174,000 a year, with party leaders in both houses bagging more. House Speaker John Boehner leads the pack with an annual salary of $223,500. The push is now on to increase congressional pay led by Rep. Jim Moran, Virginia Democrat, who laments that members of Congress…
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From Wolters Kluwer, the publishers of the CCH Standard Tax Reporter, comes the answer to the perennial question: how long is the U.S. tax code? For the 2013 tax year (the one for which you either needed to file to pay your federal income taxes or to file for an extension on April 15,…
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The first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing added new confusion to the tragedy. Some politicians still blamed the FBI for not following up on tips from Russian intelligence but a government report blames the Russians for not providing sufficient information. Whatever the case, some facts remain clear. No U.S. intelligence agency, military force,…
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As we have noted, the IRS targets supporters of limited government, calls it “horrible customer service,” and resists inquiry. The IRS also does a poor job combatting fraud, and sends out more than $3 billion to identity thieves. The Social Security Administration has paid out more than $30 million to at least 1,546 dead…
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