Listening to the Democratic presidential debates these past two days has been alarming. Pandering to specific groups, the candidates are prepared to have the federal government cover the costs for a myriad of programs. The New York Times wrote, “The Democrats’ two nights of debates showed that liberalism is on the march in the party. […]
Spidey Sense Signals Incoming Pork
The United States spends approximately 3.2 percent of gross domestic product on defense each year, good for $716 billion in fiscal year 2019, a total that dwarfed spending for all other federal agencies. Unfortunately, the Department of Defense (DOD) performs notoriously poorly when it comes to tracking spending. The DOD remains the sole federal agency […]
A Government-Owned 5G Network Would Be a Massive Boondoggle
Despite mounting evidence to the contrary and President Trump’s announcement that he opposes nationalization of 5G, this idea keeps resurfacing. And like many other concepts emanating from the Beltway Bandits, this one would be costly and disastrous. It should be buried and not resurrected. The latest argument being raised by proponents is beating China to […]
USPS Losses Deepening
Healthcare, Budget, Postal Service
Pork-Barrel Madness 2019
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) presents its 2019 Pork-Barrel Madness bracket in honor of the NCAA tournament. The bracket features 32 of the worst pork-barrel earmarks of all time. Taxpayers will be able to vote on CAGW’s Twitter account @GovWaste. Voting on the first-round matchups begins on March 11 and the torunament will end on April 1.
DOD’s JEDI Contract Subject to Further Scrutiny
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud services contract is facing new challenges as the Pentagon investigates potential conflicts of interest by former employees involved in the drafting of the request for proposal (RFP).
Farm Bill Conferees Should Avoid Broadband Overbuild
Broadband overbuild using taxpayer dollars has been an ongoing problem across this country. Some providers will obtain a grant or loan from a federal agency to build out broadband in rural communities and then use the funding to either deploy or upgrade equipment where broadband already exists rather than spend taxpayer resources on unserved communities […]
DOD Auditors Swing and Miss
Auditors at the Department of Defense (DOD) have provided a blueprint for underachieving students everywhere: they may have failed the test, but they never expected to pass! Speaking to reporters on November 15, 2018, Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan stated “We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it.” While the DOD […]
Congressional Eye Turns to DOD’s JEDI Contract
One wonders if the “Force” is working against the Department of Defense (DOD) with its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project (JEDI). The contract bid request that by some estimates could reach $10 billion to build an enterprise-level commercial cloud solution, including Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service, to support the all defense agencies […]
Lost in Space: New Branch Makes Little Sense
Citizens Against Government Waste has previously covered the idea of creating a sixth military branch. The argument in favor of a Space Force is almost entirely without merit. It will increase bureaucracy, add to overhead costs, and complicate existing command structures, all without providing additional capabilities. For these very reasons, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was […]







