Archive for May, 2018

Check The Beacon for the Latest Blog Content


Wednesday May 30th, 2018   •   Posted by Paul Theroux at 4:42pm PDT   •   0 Comments

To allow our our work to reach the widest audience, as of May 2018, new blog posts will appear on the Independent Institute’s main blog, The Beacon. Please visit The Beacon for the latest insights on government waste, tax policy, economics, and more.

The FBI’s $70,000 Conference Table


Tuesday May 29th, 2018   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 6:10am PDT   •   1 Comment

One of the stranger side stories to come out of the FBI’s secret investigation of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s election campaign back in 2016 came out in the news last week, where the FBI apparently chose to redact (or black out) a portion of a text message sent between FBI agents Lisa Page and…
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FasTrak Fakery Preys on the People


Tuesday May 22nd, 2018   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 10:11am PDT   •   0 Comments

Back on March 19, this writer put in his typical Monday workday and never left his neighborhood in California’s capital city. That schedule is somewhat at odds with a notice I received from FasTrak, California’s freeway tolling agency.  “Immediate Attention Required—Official FasTrak Notice,” read the outside of the envelope, mailed on May 14. “Violation…
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Where Do the U.S. Government’s Bureaucrats Work?


Monday May 21st, 2018   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 6:24am PDT   •   0 Comments

As of the end of 2017, there were over 2 million bureaucrats who directly work for the U.S. government. That amazing number doesn’t include the 503,103 people who work for the U.S. Postal Service or any of the 1.3 million active duty members of the U.S. military services or the nation’s 800,000 reservists. Nor…
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Baby Steps Toward Healing Corrupt VA


Friday May 18th, 2018   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 7:09am PDT   •   0 Comments

The scandal-plagued U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not currently have a congressionally approved leader. At the same time, the VA’s bureaucrats also appear to have little interest in providing timely health care to America’s veterans, nor do they appear to take the business of maintaining safe and clean medical facilities for their patients…
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Thirteen Plus Forty


Wednesday May 16th, 2018   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 1:58pm PDT   •   0 Comments

June 6 will mark 40 years since California voters passed the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation, more commonly known as Proposition 13. As its primary backers recall, “property taxes were out of control. People were losing their homes because they could not pay their property taxes, yet government did nothing to help them.”…
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White House Attempts to Claw Back $15 Billion


Monday May 14th, 2018   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 6:30am PDT   •   0 Comments

Two weeks ago, the White House was floating a trial balloon for using rescission to cut $25 billion worth of spending. Last week, the White House moved forward with what appears to be a down payment on that plan, where they are initially seeking to surgically claw back some $15 billion worth of spending…
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George Deukmejian and the Protection of Taxpayer Dollars


Friday May 11th, 2018   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 2:05pm PDT   •   0 Comments

Former governor George Deukmejian recently passed away at 89. Many Californians have little memory of the Golden State’s 35th governor, who served from 1983 to 1992. Millennials and such may be unaware that Deukmejian was the last California governor to return surplus funds directly to taxpayers in the form of a check. In 1987,…
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Record Budget Surplus for U.S. Government in April


Friday May 11th, 2018   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 6:45am PDT   •   0 Comments

April is the one month in which the U.S. government can be expected to run a budget surplus, thanks largely to the annual filing of personal income taxes that are due during the month. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, April 2018 saw the biggest budget surplus ever recorded in the nation’s history of…
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The Sexual Abuse Inherent in the System


Wednesday May 9th, 2018   •   Posted by K. Lloyd Billingsley at 9:43am PDT   •   0 Comments

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman is the latest target of the #Me Too movement, with four women charging that Schneiderman abused them, calling one his “brown slave” and making her say that she was “his property.” Schneiderman, a self-proclaimed advocate for woman, dismissed it as “role playing,” and says he never crossed the…
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