Beginning yesterday, the U.S. Treasury Department began its now-routine use of “extraordinary” measures to slow down the rate at which it borrows money to keep the nation’s total public debt outstanding below the limit set by Congress. In announcing those measures, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew ruled out some common-sense suggestions that members of Congress…
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As consumers know, modern computers are incredibly reliable machines that work right out of the box, simplify many tasks, and save consumers money. In the hands of government employees, however, computers often fail to work, make life more complicated, and cost taxpayers much more money than advertised. As Jon Ortiz notes in the Sacramento…
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We’ve been busy behind the scenes here at the MyGovCost project at the Independent Institute, as we’ve just completed our major annual update to the MyGovCost Government Cost Calculator! The MyGovCost Government Cost Calculator is the only tool available for you, the ordinary taxpayer, to get a sense of what the U.S. government’s expected…
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We’re going to summarize the biggest takeaway from the CBO’s latest update to its budget projections with a single chart: Note that the trend for revenues flattens out after 2016, when most of the tax hikes that are mandated as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”) are fully implemented….
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Whenever the U.S. government’s cumulative spending reaches the point where the national debt racked up to support it nears the nation’s debt limit ceiling, it creates problems for the U.S. Treasury Department, because it has to resort to playing a shell game with the accounts it controls to keep the nation’s debt under that…
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As we recently noted, California’s Little Hoover Commission, a state watchdog, reported that the state cannot even document whether or not the $13.2 billion raised by Proposition 63 improved Californians’ lives. That is of interest because the 2004 measure, sponsored by Sen. Darrell Steinberg, was supposed to keep people off the street, out of…
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We’re returning to the troubles of EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy today, because she’s made the news again due to her oversight at the out-of-control government agency. CBS News reports: In the private sector, if you’re caught viewing porn on company time or intimidating a co-worker, you’d probably be fired immediately; not so if you’re…
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When government says it’s going to be “neutral” about something, taxpayers can’t go wrong thinking that precisely the opposite is the case. Consider, for example, the latest government power grab, disguised as “Internet Neutrality.” If government were indeed neutral it would leave the Internet alone. But under Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler, government…
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Under federal law, no agency or department can spend money on any discretionary purpose without authorization by the Congress of the United States. But apparently, when it comes to spending money to prop up the Affordable Care Act, neither the U.S. Treasury Department nor the Department of Health and Human Services can apparently be…
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Comparing the spending in President Obama’s budget proposal for 2016 with his budget proposal for 2015 is turning out to be a very interesting exercise. It’s one that may shed much light on future spending for the roughly 5 million undocumented immigrants subject to the president’s controversial executive action on immigration announced last November….
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