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Archive for March, 2016

How Bureaucrats Think


Thursday March 31st, 2016   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 7:51am PDT   •   1 Comment

We came across a really interesting example that exemplifies the difference in the way people in the private sector think versus how people who work for government think! In the private sector, thanks to modern computing technologies, many businesses are able to automate a vital portion of their businesses: the taking of orders for…
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More Bureaucracy a Bust for the Homeless


Wednesday March 30th, 2016   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 5:52am PDT   •   0 Comments

“More bureaucracy isn’t a solution for homelessness.” That is the kind of headline readers would expect in a libertarian publication. It’s actually the headline of the lead editorial in the March 24 edition of The Sacramento Bee, the newspaper of record in California’s capital. Since this publication rarely criticizes bureaucracy, taxpayers will find the…
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The Trajectory of Defense Spending


Tuesday March 29th, 2016   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 6:07am PDT   •   0 Comments

Last year, as part of the 2-year budget/debt ceiling deal negotiated between President Obama and former House Speaker John Boehner, spending on national defense was supposed to increase. Here’s what Military Times wrote at the time: The White House and Congress late Monday agreed to a budget deal that would provide financial relief to…
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Government Money Pit Still Leaks Taxpayer Dollars


Monday March 28th, 2016   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 5:54am PDT   •   1 Comment

In light of the ongoing drought, Californians are grateful for the storms that have been pounding the Golden State. It’s a slightly different story, however, down at the Sacramento headquarters of the state Board of Equalization. As Jon Ortiz notes in the Sacramento Bee the “24-story money pit” sprung two leaks during recent heavy…
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Obama Budget: Runaway Inflation in Health Care Spending?


Friday March 25th, 2016   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 4:24pm PDT   •   1 Comment

Something is deeply amiss where President Obama’s latest proposed spending for Health Care Services is concerned. Previously, we noted the remarkable growth in the amount of spending that President Obama has proposed for the line item (literally Line 551 of Historical Table 3.2) that includes expenditures for the Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (more…
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The New Budget Proposal and You


Wednesday March 23rd, 2016   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 1:59pm PDT   •   4 Comments

We’ve just updated the MyGovCost calculator to incorporate all the new federal government spending that President Obama has proposed and the Congressional Budget Office really anticipates in the future! What we found in doing the analysis for the latest budget is that much of what President Obama has proposed is something of a smoke…
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The Road to Waste, Fraud and Abuse


Wednesday March 23rd, 2016   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 5:31am PDT   •   2 Comments

This column tracks government waste, fraud and abuse, and on rare occasions, so does government itself. For example, a new report from California State Auditor Elaine Howle finds that “Caltrans’ weak cost controls over field maintenance work orders create opportunities for fraud, waste, and abuse.” Caltrans division of maintenance, the report says, “paid $250,000…
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A Door of Perception on Waste


Monday March 21st, 2016   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 9:52am PDT   •   0 Comments

With newspapers in decline, stories about government waste, fraud and abuse tend to get short shrift. One notable exception is Jon Ortiz of the Sacramento Bee, whose “State Worker” columns demonstrate how waste works. For example, California’s Board of Equalization, a tax agency, wanted to replace a door. The initial cost for that simple…
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Rising “Corrections” Costs a Bad Deal for Taxpayers


Wednesday March 16th, 2016   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 5:35am PDT   •   0 Comments

As we recently noted, injustices such as wrongful imprisonment, needless trial expenses and prosecutorial errors cost California taxpayers $282 million from 1989 to 2012. These costs are hardly the only problem in the criminal justice system, as Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee observes. Walters has been on the job since the 1970s and…
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How Bad Are Uncle Sam’s Books?


Tuesday March 15th, 2016   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 6:32am PDT   •   0 Comments

The question is answered by the reporting of the Daily Caller News Foundation‘s Kathryn Watson: Uncle Sam’s financial statements are so bad the Government Accountability Office (GAO) flunked him for the 19th year in a row. The Department of Defense, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Department of Agriculture have books in such…
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