President-elect Donald Trump finds “tremendous waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal government,” and proclaims “we’re going to get it.” That will be a tough task because, as one recent case confirms, waste, fraud and abuse are inherent in the system. When he applied for a job with the EPA in 1989, John Beale…
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California state senators draw six-figure salaries plus gold-plated pensions, plus an impressive array of benefits that includes a car allowance. Some of those senators like to get drunk, and when they do, California taxpayers will now be footing the bill to drive them home. As Alexei Koseff and Jim Miller observe in the Sacramento…
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According to the official government website, “The President’s vision for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to transform VA into a 21st Century organization that is Veteran-centric, results-driven, and forward-looking.” So no surprise that “the President’s 2015 Budget includes $163.9 billion for VA in 2015. This includes $68.3 billion in discretionary resources and…
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As we noted last week, the California Senate conducted a hearing on the problems with the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, which cost some $5 billion more than the original estimate. Bridge construction was delayed 10 years but doubts remain about its safety. Taxpayers should wonder why politicians took so long to…
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President Barack Obama’s announced intention is to bring “quality, affordable,” health insurance to the uninsured. That is not likely to happen for some time, if at all, given the debacle of the rollout. But Obamacare has already succeeded in taking away health insurance from some 19 million people in the individual market. Those people…
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The lies, waste, fraud and incompetence involved in Obamacare have been getting a lot of ink and deservedly so. But while Americans watch the health hokum unfold they should not forget fallout from the federal stimulus. Consider, for example, the fortunes of Abound Solar. In 2010 Barack Obama praised the company as an excellent…
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As we recently noted, longtime Long Island resident Carol Cooke received tax refunds for thousands of dollars, all to people who did not live at her residence. This was obvious fraud but when Cooke contacted the IRS they gave her the runaround. This was not an isolated case. A full 23,994 tax refunds were…
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In a new article in the Financial Times, Nicole Bullock reports that a huge pension deficit of more than half a trillion dollars for 50 U.S. cities may produce calls for a massive federal bailout: “Big US cities could be squeezed by unfunded public pensions as they and counties face a $574 billion funding…
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