Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) chose politics over pork-busting when he switched his vote on the line-item veto bill in June. The ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee dutifully followed the partisan orders of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vote against any Republican budget reform, even one that is proven to save taxpayer money and that Spratt had been a high-profile sponsor of in the past.
Un-FIT!?
In April, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced that the House Republican Policy Committee had created the “Fiscal Integrity Task Force (FIT).” Taxpayer groups in Washington were elated. Finally, Republicans in Congress were rediscovering their fiscal soul. The goal of the FIT, according to Rep. Boehner, is “to put fiscal integrity into government budgeting, taxing, and spending, and to demand that Congress run the federal government like a family budget.”
A Challenge That Should Not Be Met
Six years ago, President Bush called for the establishment of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), “a new compact for global development defined by new accountability for both rich and poor nations alike.”
Department of Defense and Lavish Expenditures
What do earmarks for $10 million for the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans, $18 million for a chapel in Fort Hood, and $5 million for a fence near San Diego have in common? The House of Representatives deemed them to be important enough to include as earmarks in the committee report on H.R. 5658, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2009.
Coconut Road Outrage
An update on the ongoing drama associated with what CAGW has dubbed “the immaculate earmark.”
Three Coins in a Fountain
When one tosses a coin into a fountain it is customary to make a wish. The wish could be as substantial as, “I wish for the winning numbers to the lottery,” or it could be as elusive as “I wish for cancer to be cured.” Until the budget for the fiscal year of 2009 was drafted, never before has a wish dictated the potential use of the discarded currency.
IRS Still Plagued By Security Vulnerability
The Government Accountability Project (GAO) released a report on January 8, 2008 documenting the mediocre progress made by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) toward tightening its information security systems. The GAO said: “The IRS is at increased risk of unauthorized access to and disclosure, modification, and destruction of financial and taxpayer information, as well as inadvertent or deliberate disruption of system operations and services.”
Big Time ARM Wrestling
The country continues to experience uncertainty and volatility in the financial markets as a result of the crisis in the mortgage industry. Financial services companies have been hit hard. For example, Merrill Lynch announced an $8.4 billion writedown in October, and Citigroup received a $7.5 billion infusion of cash from investors in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
For its part, Congress has been trying to help homeowners who face foreclosure or need help refinancing homes they can no longer afford. Developments in the mortgage market are fluid and the industry began taking corrective action to mitigate problems for some subprime borrowers. One housing advocate told The Wall Street Journal that some loan-service providers are “already freezing rates for five to seven years.”
European Taxpayers Speak Out
When many Americans think of Europe, they conjure up images of slow-moving socialist bureaucracies. While this type of government may exist in some countries, there is a growing free market and taxpayer movement spreading throughout the continent.
Read Our Lips: No New Internet Taxes
In the fall of 1998, the Internet Tax Freedom Act put a moratorium on discriminatory and multiple Internet taxes on electronic commerce and access taxes at the federal, state, and local levels. With large bipartisan support, the ban was extended in 2001 and 2004. It expires on November 1, 2007. Congress is considering a four-year extension.