What is it about the Christmas season that inspires the federal government’s bureaucrats to celebrate the holiday at taxpayer expense? In Part 1, we looked at how the U.S. Marshals Service had custom Christmas ornaments and other kinds of specialty swag especially made to boost the spirits of its workers. Which was wasteful enough,…
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Troubles mount for the Affordable Care Act but a default position among Obamacare acolytes is that the state exchanges are a shining success story. A recent Sacramento Bee report calls that into question. Covered California is “spending tens of millions of dollars on two-year grants ranging from $250,000 to more than $1 million” to…
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According to a December 5-8 Gallup poll, a full 72 percent of Americans say big government poses a greater threat to the United States than big business or big labor. That strong majority of Americans has good reason for concern. Government holds a monopoly on police power. It was the federal government of the…
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Santa may still be en route but the elves at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) have already made their list and checked it twice. CARB bosses want to help low-income people by buying them cars. CARB now hands out $1,000-$1,500 for motorists to get rid of older vehicles. Under the new plan the…
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Senator Tom Coburn has just released the 2013 edition of the Wastebook—his office’s annual compendium of the most extreme examples of wasteful spending within the U.S. federal government—just in time for the holidays! Backed by 930 citations, the 2013 Wastebook lists 100 examples of things that the federal government’s bureaucrats have done with taxpayer…
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As this column documents, the federal government is an engine of waste, fraud and abuse lately exemplified by Obamacare and the stimulus package. For their part, state governments are fond of boondoggles such as California’s so-called “bullet train.” But when calculating the cost of government, taxpayers would be wise to factor in local waste…
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As we have noted, Obamacare violates medical ethics by first doing harm. In the early going, in violation of repeated presidential promises, Obamacare stripped many embattled Americans of the health plans they had selected. This pushed them toward the dysfunctional and insecure Obamacare website, where they would get the news about higher premiums and bigger…
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As we expected, the chairs of the House and Senate budget committees, Paul Ryan and Patty Murray, reached a deal in setting the amount of federal government spending for the next two years. The Washington Post reports on the particulars: Under the terms of the deal, spending for the Pentagon and other federal agencies…
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On December 9, the federal government dumped the rest of its 30 million shares in General Motors, which had become known as Government Motors, for good reason. In 2009, the federal government bailed out the bankrupt automaker to the tune of $49.5 billion and once held 60.8 percent ownership in the company. The loss…
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According to a recent report, a judge has ordered California’s High-Speed Rail Authority to “rescind its original funding plan, a decision that figures to halt state bond funding for the $68 billion project until a new plan is put in place.” That might slow down the project but taxpayers should recall the reasons it…
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