Page 295 – Taxpayers Protection Alliance

A Friendly Video Reminder to the Postal Service to Stay Focused on Delivering Mail

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:December 14, 2015
Post category:Michi Iljazi Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Just several weeks ago, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) released its financial results and the information wasn’t good news for the Postal Service or taxpayers. Reporting a loss of $5.1 billion for the 2015 fiscal year, its ninth consecutive year-end loss of more than a billion dollars, the beleaguered agency must find a way to get back on track. Part of the problem is the repeated attepmts by the agency to delve into new services like grocery delivery. It is also important to note that leadership at the USPS has been an issue too, which is why TPA is looking to their Board of Governors and the multiple openings on the board as a way to repair the agency. After another financial loss, compounded by a year in which multiple schemes in new services did not deliver the return needed to get the agency out of the red, it’s time the USPS remember the message of many who have been calling for reforms: stick to the core mission of delivering the mail. With that in mind, TPA is reminding everyone about that message with our animated holiday-themed video calling on the government-granted monopoly to stop with abusive expansion into private markets and return to that core mission. The video can be seen below and on TPA’s YouTube page (click here).

TPA to Congress: Support H.R. 644 and Make the Ban on Internet Access Taxes Permanent!

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:December 10, 2015
Post category:Congress Internet Michi Iljazi National Taxpayers Union Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Taxpayers Protection Alliance is committed to seeing relief for taxpayers whenever victories appear to be sight, and lately taxpayers haven’t had too many victories. That could all change over the next few days as Congress considers legislation that will permanently extended the moratorium on Internet access taxes. On Friday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 644, Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 by a vote of 256-158. This legislation contains measures regarding our trade agenda, but it also contains a positive taxpayer provision, the "Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act" (PITFA), which will forever eliminate any threat of tax increases for Internet access. PITFA will give millions of Americans the certainty they need on a looming tax increase that can finally be eliminated for good. The conference report contains language that will ban those online taxes nationwide permanently. TPA and many other groups have been working and fighting for years to have the moratorium (which has been extended on a limited basis continually since 1998) made permanent. The Internet is critical to businesses, and working families that cannot afford any new tax increases, particularly one that would reach every jurisdiction in the country, which would amount to more than 10,000 different possible new increases around the country. Individuals and businesses use a number of tools to access the web, including smart phones, tablets, TVs, and computers; all of those mediums would be impacted by these new tax increases. E-commerce is paramount to growing our economy, and this is a tax that would absolutely damage the internet-based economy. Here is an important refresher; the video TPA posted where folks from all over the country weighed in on what they thought Congress should about Internet access taxes.

TPA Leads Coalition Urging Repeal of USDA Catfish Inspection Program

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:December 9, 2015
Post category:Catfish Congress Government Accountability Office Michi Iljazi Taxpayers Protection Alliance

While Washington continues to move closer to their Christmas vacation, with much left to be done, TPA continues to remain hard at work looking at ways lawmakers and agencies can save taxpayers money this holiday season and beyond. Once program that continues to be prime for elimination is the unnecessary and wasteful Catfish Inspection program by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) already has a program in place for inspection of imported catfish. Unfortunately, taxpayers are already out $30 million dollars and it is estimated the duplicative USDA program will cost tens of millions of dollars annually. With that in mind, Taxpayers Protection Alliance sent a coalition letter signed by Campaign for Liberty, Center for Individual Freedom, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Frontiers of Freedom, Independent Women’s Forum, Independent Women’s Voice, Institute for Liberty, Less Government, National Taxpayers Union, R Street Institute, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, and Taxpayers for Common Sense calling on Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, Shaun Donovan, to do what can be done in order to get rid of the wasteful program, as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has repeatedly recommended. Click 'read more' to read the full letter

15 Reasons Congressional Research Service Reports Should Be Public

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:December 8, 2015
Post category:Congress Spending

The following article appeared on Medium.com on October 26, 2015 Kevin R. Kosar is a senior fellow and governance project director for the R Street Institute I worked at the Congressional Research Service for 11 years as an analyst and manager. I greatly enjoyed supplying congressional staff, committees, and members of Congress with nonpartisan research and advice. I got to help conceptualize legislation, assist committees with hearing preparation and testify before Congress. It was fun, heady work. I also wrote a lot of CRS reports, as did my beloved colleagues. Each year, the agency publishes about 1,000 reports, which cover general subject matter, like advertising by the federal government and cloture in the U.S. Senate. Congress, not the CRS, owns them. That means nobody at the CRS is free to distribute its reports to anyone outside Congress — not without jumping through bureaucratic hoops. Unfortunately, our national legislature, as a matter of practice, does not publish all CRS reports in one place, like Congress.gov. CRS reports get posted here and there on various congressional webpages. Additionally, any member or congressional staffer can share reports with the public; it’s a congressional prerogative. As a result, there are CRS reports floating all over the Internet. By one count, there are 27,000 CRS reports scattered over 1,400 U.S. government websites.

Republicans And Democrats Prepare To Revive Bank Of Corporate Welfare

Post author:David Williams
Post published:December 7, 2015
Post category:Congress Ex-Im Bank Taxpayers Protection Alliance

This article appeared in The Daily Caller on December 3, 2015 On Tuesday, bipartisan members of Congress struck a deal that included renewal of the U.S. Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank into the five-year, $305 billion highway funding bill. What export financing and transportation highway funding have in common is anyone’s guess, but this is exactly why Americans distrust Washington. These political games revived government-sponsored crony capitalism that no one needs and many agree is a waste of taxpayer resources. In today’s hyper-partisan Congress, it seems the only thing our elected officials seem to agree on is more corporate welfare for Fortune 500 companies at the taxpayer’s expense. It’s all but inevitable now that the corrupt Ex-Im Bank will be resurrected from the dead. Boeing and GE must be giving a sigh of relief. They’ll still be able to count on their golden goose to fund $10.9 billion dollars’ worth of loan guarantees, with $8.3 to Boeing and $2.6 to GE last year. It’s called “Boeing’s Bank” for a reason; they alone consistently receive 40 percent of Ex-Im’s total authorizations and received a staggering $66.7 billion from 2007 to 2013. And, just think, Boeing and GE only had to spend $46.9 million to lobby on the bank’s behalf.

House Moves Forward on Critical Energy Overhaul Legislation

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:December 4, 2015
Post category:Congress Energy House Michi Iljazi Oil Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Energy policy is one of the most important components to the United States economy, impacting taxpayers and businesses everyday. Congress has been working to pass a comprehensive energy bill that makes critical reforms to the system and this week lawmakers finally moved forward with legislation. Yesterday, by a vote of 249-174, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act (H.R. 8) was approved by the House and will soon move over the Senate. While President Obama has already issued a veto threat of Rep. Fred Upton's (R-Mich.) bill that lifts the decades-old ban on crude oil exports, TPA sent a letter this week urging Congress to pass the legislation. Click 'read more' below to see the letter

Senator Lankford Continues Tradition of Exposing Government Waste

Post author:David Williams
Post published:December 2, 2015
Post category:Congress Regulation Senate Spending Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Before Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) retired, he was known for being a taxpayer watchdog and his government waste report. Sen. Coburn would hold a press conference and shame government agencies and bureaucrats for the massive amounts of waste they perpetrated at the expense of taxpayers. This is one Washington tradition that should be carried on forever. Fortunately, Sen. Coburn’s successor, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), released his own report spotlighting excessive and wasteful spending as well as regulatory overreach from federal agencies. The report, entitled “Federal Fumbles: 100 ways the government dropped the ball,” details billions of dollars in spending and regulations that range from the idiotic to absolute bizarre. With more than $100 billion in waste and $800 billion in needless regulations, there are plenty of ridiculous examples that fill Sen. Lankford’s report.

Tax Reform Could Be on the Congressional Horizon

Post author:David Williams
Post published:December 1, 2015
Post category:Congress House Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Recently-elected House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) sat down with 60 Minutes during which he touched upon a wide range of issues, including the prospect of tax reform in the coming year. Speaker Ryan noted that it was possible to work with the Democrats and President Obama on issues both parties agree on stating that, “Look, if we can find common ground, we can on highways, we will on funding the government, hopefully we can on tax policy. Those are three things that will produce certainty in this economy in the next few months. Let's go do that.” That is good news because people from all walks of life want real tax reform at the individual and corporate level.

Cyber Monday is a Reminder Why Lawmakers Should Keep The Internet Tax Free

Post author:David Williams
Post published:November 27, 2015
Post category:Congress Internet Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Today is “Cyber Monday,” the busiest online shopping day of the year. Last year, there was a record number of online sales with one-day purchases exceeding $2 billion. According to CNN, this is an increase of 17 percent over 2013. With renewed threats of Internet sales taxes coming out of Congress, there’s no better time to look at why e-commerce is so important and how Washington can make sure it continues to be a key driver of the economy. The increase in online shopping from 2013-2014 shows that the Internet is a key driver in a strong economy. That makes it even more baffling to think that some in Congress would be so out of touch to continue to push the idea of creating new taxes for Internet sales (click here to listen to the Taxpayer Watch that discuses the online sales taxes). Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) recently introduced new online sales tax legislation. H.R. 2775, the “Remote Transactions Parity Act” (RTPA) would hit total sales, no matter the amount of sales in online business transactions.

TPA Presents the Taxpayer Turkeys of 2015!

Post author:David Williams
Post published:November 24, 2015
Post category:Congress Internet Gambling Taxpayers Protection Alliance

The time of year is here again when working families all across the country get together and gather around the dinner table and celebrate Thanksgiving. Even though the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is thankful for many things, we are also looking out for taxpayers because there are plenty of turkeys causing trouble. So, in the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, TPA once again is highlighting our Taxpayer Turkeys of the year! Be sure to listen to TPA’s podcast where we talk about this year’s turkeys (click here). Click "read more" below to see TPA's 2015 Taxpayer Turkeys!