Page 175 – Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Budget Reconciliation’s Dark Side

Post author:Dan Savickas
Post published:April 7, 2021
Post category:Budget

Multiple infrastructure bills are being prepped to be debated and voted on in Congress. Party lines have been drawn as Democrats are eager to pass legislation quickly while Republicans want to pump the brakes and slow down the process. Even though Democrats control the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, their majority hinges on Vice President Harris (a fellow Democrat) casting the tie breaking vote. With that razor thin majority, the Democrats remain well short of the 60-vote threshold needed to obtain a filibuster-proof majority.

TRATAMIENTO ANTIENVEJECIMIENTO

Op-Ed: With Proper Patent Protection, Vaccines Offer Plenty of Promise

Post author:Ross Marchand
Post published:April 6, 2021
Post category:Healthcare

Since the start of the pandemic, leading drug makers such as Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson have relied on robust intellectual property (IP) protections in developing coronavirus vaccines. Because of the patent protections afforded by developed countries such as the U.S. and U.K., leading manufacturers have felt comfortable putting billions of dollars on the line and weathering a difficult, unpredictable Food and Drug Administration approval process.

Photo by The Washington Post

Profile in Courage: Mark Schlefer

Post author:Ross Marchand
Post published:April 2, 2021
Post category:Profile in Courage Uncategorized

For more than 50 years, Americans have been able to keep tabs on their government and examine government documents hidden from the public view with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The process of holding the government accountable for secret programs and communications used to take skilled, time-consuming investigative journalism and an army of lawyers. Even then, success was far from guaranteed. But thanks to FOIA, and its bold creators and supporters such as Mark Schlefer, keeping the government honest has become a considerably simpler process. Through a painstaking drafting process, Schlefer helped ensure that FOIA would actually have teeth rather than serve as another layer of bureaucracy shielding the government from the public. And, for giving the American public a critical resource to fight federal overreach, the dearly departed Mark Schlefer is truly a Profile in Courage.

Roads, Bridges, and Drug Pricing—A Dangerous Trojan Horse

Post author:David Williams
Post published:April 1, 2021
Post category:Infrastructure

There’s quite a bit happening in Washington, D.C., and that is bad news for taxpayers and consumers. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has now claimed that lawmakers are considering piling their massive Medicare overhaul on top of the Biden administration’s $3 trillion infrastructure proposal. Putting aside the price tag of the infrastructure bill, healthcare policy is not related to repairing roads and bridges or investing in emerging transportation technologies.

Watchdog Praises Huge Win for Media Competition at Supreme Court

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:April 1, 2021
Post category:Press

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is celebrating an unanimous victory for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the issue of media ownership in the case of FCC v. Prometheus. Under the leadership of former Chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC scrapped onerous and outdated rules regarding the common ownership of local media assets such as newspapers and broadcasters. Activist judges on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals had repeatedly blocked the FCC’s attempts to modernize these rules for the digital age. We applaud the Supreme Court for reversing the Third Circuit and clearing the way.

Watchdog Slams Biden’s Broadband Infrastructure Plan

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:March 31, 2021
Post category:Press

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is concerned with the recent announcement that the upcoming infrastructure package will include $100 billion for broadband deployment. This money is untargeted and will not help reach underserved communities.

Op-Ed: Charm City Children Deserve Better Schools

Post author:Ross Marchand
Post published:March 30, 2021
Post category:State Issues

Baltimore City Public Schools are failing their 80,000 students at an exorbitantly-high cost. State and local taxpayers spend nearly $16,000 per pupil on education, placing Baltimore in the top five nationally for highest-spending school systems. Yet Fox Baltimore reports, “Since 2018, … graduation rates have dropped to 70%; and the college enrollment rate is down 13 points to 57%.”

Watchdog Slams White House Vaccine Plan

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:March 29, 2021
Post category:Healthcare

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) strongly condemned the White House for proposing to force drug companies to relinquish their intellectual property (IP) on vaccines. On Saturday, March 26, CNBC reported that, “The White House is weighing whether to suspend intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments…”

Lessons Learned Ahead of Yet Another Big Tech Hearing

Post author:Patrick Hedger
Post published:March 25, 2021
Post category:Technology

Another panel of big tech CEOs are slated to be dragged yet again before a congressional committee to address congressional accusations about their business practices. Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jack Dorsey, the CEOs of Google, Facebook, and Twitter respectively will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today. This is not even close to the first time each has been called to Capitol Hill in the last year. Before the fireworks commence again, it is worth considering what’s been learned from their many previous appearances.

TPA Highlights Dangers of Congressional Big Tech Obsession to Small Business

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:March 25, 2021
Post category:Press

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) strongly opposes the effort of lawmakers to reevaluate antitrust and intermediary liability laws, such as Section 230, to achieve policy objectives outside of the scope of ensuring consumers are not harmed by a lack of competition in the market. Today, TPA submitted testimony from a small business for the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing entitled “"Disinformation Nation: Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation" in efforts to expose how small businesses nationwide heavily rely on online platforms to survive, especially during the global pandemic. Our comments also pushed back on the constitutionality of constraining the ability of online services to manage their products as they see fit.