TPA Goes Trick or Treating

Every Halloween children and adults alike get their fair share of tricks and treats.  The government doesn’t wait until the end of October to shower taxpayers with tricks or treats; it shares these treats or tricks all year long.  Let’s take a closer look at some of the tricks and treats from this past year.  This year’s tricks include:  non-profit environmental organizations receiving tax dollars, The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), and government funded broadband.  Treats include:  the selling of wireless spectrum, The Department of Treasury trying to recoup money from a failed energy company, and the passage of enhanced whistleblower protection in the House of Representatives.  These are not the only tricks or treats by the government but the folks at TPA were concerned that if we showed you too many tricks you may not be able to sleep at night and it was really difficult finding enough treats with a debt of $16 trillion and a Congress (especially the Senate) that refuses to cut spending.

TRICK: Swamp Thing! Earlier this month, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance released a report, “The Environmental Shakedown of American Taxpayers,” that highlighted the misuse of tax dollars by environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).  Don’t worry, this TPA report wasn’t the trick, but what the report exposes, the $470 million of tax dollars the government misspends on environmental groups is.  If you think that spending government resources on non-government groups sounds like an oxymoron, you’re right. The fact this is a counterintuitive action doesn’t stop the government though.  These organizations are not only receiving tax dollars despite their ‘non-governmental’ status but are spending these funds to advance radical agendas, often at the expense of developing economies in some of the world’s poorest regions.  In Indonesia and Malaysia, where people are draining peat swamps to grow profitable crops, rather than compromising forests or infringing upon the habitat of endangered species, Wetlands International is working to prevent these enterprising farmers from using their land. Even though peat bogs have been drained so that peat could be used as fuel and farmland for centuries, Wetlands International has decided that the swamps are too dangerous to allow indigenous workers to use as a source of income and food.

TREAT: Money in the bag (bank). Even though most kids would like candy more than a few pennies thrown in their bag, taxpayers are always happy when the government sells off some assets.  Taxpayers received a small treat when the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) moved forward with auctioning off spectrum. Since 1994, the FCC has held spectrum auctions, which notoriously benefit all parties involved.  Not only do these actions produce revenue for the government, they also promote and facilitate healthy competition in the market – allowing companies to allocate the new spectrum in a way to best fulfill consumer demands.  The FCC now has the opportunity to continue this practice which would provide welcomed treats to taxpayers.  This is why the FCC should begin to auction off the spectrum that the government and/or some broadcast companies no longer need.  This will not only treat taxpayers, but consumers and industries as well.

TRICK: FrankenMissile. The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), like a bad trick, is a mean thing to do to unsuspecting taxpayers.  MEADS, and its shortcomings have been the topics of many TPA blogs, but despite the sound arguments against it, our deafening cries have not yet sent this zombie back to bed.  The facts surrounding the ineffectiveness of the MEADS program abound. MEADS has rightly earned the moniker the ‘Missile to Nowhere,’ Because of the prohibitive cost ($2 billion over budget), schedule delays (10 years behind schedule) and the system’s poor performance, the U.S. Army has said it doesn’t want MEADS and that it would never use the missiles.  With an impeding sequestration, which will impose difficult cuts on the Pentagon’s budget, MEADS should be the first on the chopping block. It’s ALIVE for now, but hopefully not much longer!

TREAT: Delicious energy bars. Good news in the midst of all the now-bankrupt green companies that received government funding, the government is actually asking for some of your money back. As TPA wrote in a blog earlier this year, “The Department of Treasury is seeking to recoup taxpayer dollars it dispensed in the form of a loan guarantee to Thompson River, a now-bankrupt green energy company.”  While a government (taxpayer)-backed loan guarantee for $5 million may appear small in comparison to the $535 million provided to companies like Solyndra, the fact that the federal government is calling in on the loan for even one of the bankrupt companies is almost as good as an overflowing bucket of candy for Halloween.

TRICK: Vampires that suck tax dollars. When it comes to attempts on part of the government to trick taxpayers, we could gather quite a long list. For example, let’s look at two recent examples of attempted government trickery at the local level. First, Chattanooga city officials have eagerly touted the promises of whizz-bang fast internet that will be provided by EPB.  The only problem is that despite many taxpayer dollars, they have yet to see the proof in the pudding.  In a recent TPA piece, first appearing in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, TPA explained, “No one is naïve enough to think that EPB’s SmartGrid can handle dozens of users fully utilizing a gig of service – even if the infrastructure did cost taxpayers and electric customers $552 million. But it may be time to start asking if EPB can actually handle even one legitimate gigabit customer.”  But that’s not all, a second example of this sort of local-level boondoggle occurs this time around farther south in Lafayette, Louisiana.  Although Lafayette taxpayers were recently treated to an additional audit of LUS Fiber, Lafayette’s government-owned broadband network, that’s not enough to think a trick isn’t still on its way.  It’s important for taxpayers to know that they’re getting what they pay for, but more times than not, the answers not the treat we were hoping to hear.  Lafayette taxpayers won’t know for sure whether or not to expect a trick or a treat from the audit’s results, but one thing is sure: Good or bad, taxpayers deserve to know whether LUS Fiber is in a poor situation financially, before they’re asked to foot anymore of the bill to continue investing in the network.

TREAT: Sweet taste of success. Thanks to “unanimous consent” passage on Friday September 28, 2012, legislation to help protect federal government whistleblowers from retaliation on the job, the House of Representatives has admirably strengthened taxpayers’ first line of defense against waste, fraud and abuse. That’s the assessment of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), and the Liberty Coalition, which offered praise to House leaders and sponsors for advancing S. 743, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA)  during a “pro forma” session – and for giving momentum to final enactment when the Senate returns to Washington in mid-November.

TRICK: A Spooky Tax Increase. The World Health Organization (WHO) is proposing a $.05, $.03, or $.01 cent tax on tobacco products, depending on the wealth of the country where the products are being sold. This is being done with no regard to the potential economic impacts of such a policy.   WHO documents strongly discourage countries to allow concerns about the inflationary impact or a potential increase in unemployment of higher taxes to deter these tax increases.  TPA has travelled across the globe trying to put a stake in the heart of this tax increase that threatens the tax sovereignty of the United States.

Here’s to hoping that next year’s list will be nothing but treats for the taxpayers!