A 2015 Festivus for Taxpayers!

Folks around the country are spending time with their loved ones getting ready to celebrate the holidays with a variety of traditions that bring families together each year. There is one holiday tradition that the Taxpayers Protection Alliance enjoys, and that’s celebrating FESTIVUS! Yes, the Seinfeld-inspired holiday that people know and love is how TPA celebrates the season! Once again, we’ve put together a great list that’s perfectly themed for Kramer’s favorite holiday! Our Festivus message is always one that the President and Congress should be paying careful attention to as they prepare for the New Year, enjoy!

Airing of Grievances

The first tradition of Festivus is what is known as “the airing of grievances” and this is marked by expressing all the ways that you (taxpayers) have been disappointed over the past year (this is only a partial list since our grievances are too many to put in one post).

Ex-Im Bank

Taxpayers should be furious with how Congress handled the Export-Import Bank over the past year. Other than when the crony bank’s charter was allowed to expire at the end of June, most of the year was spent by lawmakers trying to save it. Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) ensured the rescue of the bank when he joined with Democrats to move a discharge petition (rarely used and usually by the minority) to subvert the committee process and get Ex-Im reauthorization onto the House floor. The charter would eventually be reauthorized in a transportation bill that passed both chambers. This is a major problem that taxpayers should have with Congress and they should let them hear about it too!

Solar Subsidies

One grievance that never goes away is Washington’s addiction to subsidies. Time and again politicians pick winners and losers in the marketplace and nowhere is this more the case than with subsides to the solar industry. TPA put out three reports this year exposing the massive amount of taxpayer money being funneled into companies with risky business models who are cashing in on credits meant for working families. The credits were set to expire at the end of 2016, but Congress made sure to continue bad policy by extending the credits.  Even though they are snow et to sunset in 2022, don’t be surprised if Congress looks to extend them again.

Defense Earmarks

TPA spent a good part of 2015 letting taxpayers know all the ways in which Congress has been a disappointment over the last year. One way that they continue to disappoint is the addiction to earmarks by way of Defense spending. Year after year lawmakers add money to the Pentagon budget that is neither wanted nor needed by the agency.  Congress continues to throw away taxpayer dollars on things like the Abrams tank and the F-35. Just a few weeks ago in the Omnibus spending bill, TPA uncovered $14.8 billion in DOD earmarks. This was 14 percent cost increase and taxpayers should be infuriated by the inability of Congress to kick this terrible holiday tradition.

Feats of Strength

The second tradition during Festivus celebrations is the “feats of strength” where challenging acts are performed by those lucky enough to make it beyond the “airing of grievances.” This year Washington failed to get some major challenges completed.  Here are some feats of strength for Congress next year:

Tax Reform

One accomplishment that continues to elude Washington is comprehensive tax reform. It’s been nearly three decades since the last major overhaul of the tax code and things are getting worse for taxpayers as the code becomes more complex with new regulations every day. It will take a herculean effort to get tax reform done, but with encouraging words from new House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), and the apparent appetite from Congress and the President to make this a reality, this could a feat of strength that wins the day for taxpayers sooner rather than later.

Postal Reform

This year the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) released more financial results showing yet another loss. The $5.1 billion loss for the 2015 fiscal year is the ninth consecutive year-end loss of more than a billion dollars. It’s going to take a feat of strength to for the agency to get back on track. That starts by halting the focus on new services like grocery delivery and getting back to the core mission of delivering the mail.  Other way the USPS can improve is smart procurement of new vehicles that could save taxpayers billions of dollars and adding new leadership with the Board of Governors.

Internet Sales Tax

Finally, a familiar threat in Washington is new taxes and Congress is looking to hit taxpayers with one on Internet sales. Fighting the Internet sales tax has been a feat of strength not just around the time of Festivus but it seems all year round. New legislation from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) called the “Remote Transactions Parity Act” is nothing more than a morphed bill similar to the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), and considering many GOP lawmakers have expressed support for MFA it is important that taxpayers keep pressure on their representatives in Washington to stop any efforts to pass internet sales tax legislation. Any new Internet tax would cripple e-commerce and at a time when the economy is still trying to get back on track, that would be a devastating hit for consumers and businesses.

That’s TPA’s Festivus holiday roundup for 2015.  Here’s hoping that next year is filled with fewer grievances from taxpayers.