Page 358 – Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Deadbeat Parents Drag Down Children and Taxpayers

Post author:David Williams
Post published:November 15, 2012
Post category:David Williams Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Deadbeat parents do a lot of damage to the children they neglect but their offspring is not the only group that suffers. Taxpayers are negatively impacted too; these deadbeat parents cost taxpayers $53 billion. As CNN Money’s Steve Hargreaves reports “Over $100 billion is owed in unpaid child support -- nearly half of that to taxpayers supporting children on public assistance. According to the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, $108 billion in total back payments was owed to parents with custody of children in 2009.” As with most things in life, when someone or some group fails to fulfill their respective responsibilities another group is left with picking up what remains left undone. And that’s exactly what’s happening here. When deadbeat parents choose to become deadbeat, someone or something must step up and provide for the child. While most of the children do have one parent who’s fulfilling their parental obligations, monetarily speaking the family is still coming up short. The CNN article continues, “If those [back] payments aren't made and the children then need to go on public assistance, payments are supposed to be made to the government in the form of reimbursement. About 49 percent of that back money -- or roughly $53 billion -- is owed to the government…”

Maine Goes “OINK!” Group Releases Maine Piglet Book

Post author:David Williams
Post published:November 14, 2012
Post category:David Williams Spending Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance

The Maine Heritage Policy Center recently released its “Maine 2012Piglet Book,” which details “hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful government spending. A new version of a similar publication released in 2009, the 2012 Piglet Book highlights government’s big-spending habits, as well areas where leaders can save taxpayers big money.” The compilation with its aptly given subtitle, “The book Augusta doesn’t want you to read,” is a dose of reality that should prompt elected officials to change their tendency of wastefully spending taxpayer dollars. The small size, geographically speaking, of Maine in no way reflects the hefty spending the taxpayers of the state bear. To get right into the numbers, the “Maine 2012Piglet Book,” breaks down just how the state’s per year spending, $7,595,151,209, hits taxpayers’ pocketbooks throughout the state. This hefty sum breaks down to $13,781 per household and $5,718 per person. After its thorough analysis of the costs Mainers are burdened with, the piglet report explains, “So, if the state can spend $14,450 per minute and the median household income is $46,993, it follows that Maine government can spend what a household makes in an entire year in just over 3 minutes.” This startling set of numbers is something that should wake up all of Maine’s taxpayers, including its legislators, and prompt them into action. There’s little way to imagine that spending at this rate and amount could possibly be justified, but that doesn’t mean the bureaucrats at state agencies in Augusta and elected officials throughout the state don’t try.

What is the World Health Organization hiding?

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:November 13, 2012
Post category:Drew Johnson Framework Convention of Tobacco Control Taxpayers Protection Alliance

On Tuesday, the United Nations gave Americans yet another reason not to trust their tax dollars, policy decisions or military forces with the increasingly outlandish international organization. The World Health Organization – the UN’s public health policy arm – kicked the public and the media out of a discussion of a proposed international tobacco tax during its biennial tobacco control meeting. The WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which is meeting this week in the South Korean capital of Seoul, began on a high note. The convention’s member countries on Monday ratified an agreement to fight smuggled and pirated tobacco products. That goodwill was quickly destroyed when delegates of the member countries of the conference stripped the media of the ability to cover the meeting and escorted public onlookers from the premises. The decision to meet behind closed doors occurred when a discussion began about efforts to decrease tobacco use by increasing the price of tobacco products. As the session began, the session’s chairwoman expressed concern that there was a “large presence” of tobacco growers and industry representatives in the public gallery. That would be unsurprising since the discussion has a significant impact on the livelihood of the tens of millions of people employed by tobacco farming and production. The countries then agreed to make the rest of the meeting private.

TPA Joins Sequestration Coalition

Post author:David Williams
Post published:November 12, 2012
Post category:David Williams Debt Defense Deficit Discretionary Spending

On Thursday November 8, 2012, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) joined with 21 other taxpayer and free market groups to urge Congress to stand firm and hold the line on the budget sequester set forth in the Budget Control Act of 2011. With the federal government facing yet another year of projected deficit spending exceeding $1 trillion, Congress must keep in place the $109 billion in sequestration spending restraint scheduled for 2013. Delaying this action will only make it harder to get our fiscal house in order, in the process weakening our economy, saddling future generations with debt, and further undermining Congress’s credibility to lead. Our nation’s debt has increased by approximately $1.7 trillion since the current sequester mechanism was first developed in August 2011. Permitting these cuts to occur would represent merely a modest first step toward fixing our debt crisis. Even with the Budget Control Act’s sequester and spending caps, total government spending is still expected to grow, albeit at a slightly slower rate. Rather than attempting to subvert the sequester, Congress should be proposing additional cuts to discretionary spending and considering meaningful reform to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, which pose tremendous threats to our fiscal stability.

Green Graveyard: An In-Depth Look at Government’s Bad Bets on 19 Now-Bankrupt Companies (Part II)

Post author:David Williams
Post published:November 9, 2012
Post category:Corporate Welfare David Williams Green Energy Taxpayers Protection Alliance

(This blog post is Part II of a series looking at waste in taxpayer funding of green energy submitted by Rachael Slobodien with the Heritage Foundation. Part I ran on Wednesday November 7. Click here to read) As a follow up to the Green Graveyard overview, this post provides additional information concerning the funding for each of the now-bankrupt green energy companies. In one of the most extensive compilations to date, Heritage has identified 19 bankrupt green energy companies that were unable to succeed even with the government’s promise to provide generous financial assistance totaling a whopping $2.6 billion.

Green Graveyard: 19 Taxpayer-Funded Failures (Part I)

Post author:David Williams
Post published:November 7, 2012
Post category:David Williams Energy Green Energy Taxpayers Protection Alliance

(This blog post is Part I of a series looking at waste in taxpayer funding of green energy submitted by Rachael Slobodien with the Heritage Foundation. Part II of this series will appear on Friday November 9) While there’s speculation over which federally supported green energy company may be the next to declare bankruptcy, plenty have already gone belly up. In one of the most extensive compilations to date, Heritage has identified 19 bankrupt green energy companies—unable to make it even with the $2.6 billion in financial assistance and incentives the government promised. This blog is part of the “Green Graveyard” series, which will profile each of the 19 now-bankrupt companies and detail all the types of government assistance offered. These companies were all part of President Obama’s attempt to stimulate the economy by developing and expanding the “green” energy industry. The problem is that these taxpayer-funded handouts never achieve the intended objective. Rather, they artificially support politically preferred companies and industries, like green energy, while shifting jobs and resources from another sector of the economy.

A Squirrelly Waste of Money

Post author:David Williams
Post published:November 5, 2012
Post category:David Williams Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Last month Senator Coburn released his Wastebook 2012, which highlighted some of the most egregious examples of cockamamie federal spending. Included among the 100 wasteful projects was a $325,000 grant awarded to San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of California, Davis to develop a “RoboSquirrel.” If you’re not familiar with the concept of a “RoboSquirrel,” you’re not alone. According to the Daily Caller, the purpose of this project is to observe and learn from the interactions of squirrels and rattlesnakes in the wilderness. A reasonable person may likely think this objective could be accomplished by watching the animals interact on their own, but that’s just a silly idea. In order to get a real sense of the interactions, $325,000 in taxpayer money to build a RoboSquirrel is what’s absolutely necessary to simulate and “…mimic the way squirrels fend off snake attacks by rapidly wagging their tails.”…or so the researchers tell us.

PLEASE! Don’t Call it a Comeback!

Post author:David Williams
Post published:November 2, 2012
Post category:Appropriations David Williams Earmarks Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Say it ain’t so. When you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, neither option looks good. So maybe we should give Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) a little bit of flack for saying he’ll consider loosening the earmark ban given that he’s in such a heated election battle. Not so fast, some actions are just downright unacceptable, no matter what sort of pickle you’re in. It is not ok even to consider bringing back earmarks even if promising pork to your district is the thing that will gain you reelection. Politicians don’t like losing lections, but they really don’t like losing power. This is why we keep rehashing the earmark debate. No matter if it’s an earmark by a different name or a blatant example of dole for a district, the practice is not acceptable period. Rep. Boustany had no problem alluding to the fact in a recent Politico article that, “Clearly the earmark ban has limited members of Congress’s ability to deal with important public works projects.” In other words he’s upset he’s lost that bargaining chip and bragging right to take back money to his district. The only thing that is clear in Boustany’s statement is that he clearly doesn’t understand what constitutes “important public works.”

Happy Halloween: Taxpayers Get Tricked With Wasteful Spending

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:October 31, 2012
Post category:Drew Johnson Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Halloween is here. That means a fun day of candy, costumes, jack-o-lanterns and cute trick-or-treaters filling neighborhood sidewalks across America. Also for taxpayers, Halloween is also an excuse for government to waste a terrifying amount of tax dollars on some pretty ridiculous projects. Agricultural subsidies for products like peanuts, dairy and sugar are fairly well known. Most taxpayers aren’t aware that the federal government also carved out subsidies for jack-o-lanterns. In fact, federal taxpayers spent more than $1.74 million to underwrite pumpkin growers and subsidize the cost of federal pumpkin crop insurance programs between 1995 and 2011. Many of taxpayers would be horrified to learn that the Tennessee Department of Agriculture blows tax dollars subsidizing corn mazes, pumpkin patches, hayrides and other businesses that make money hand over first this time of year without government handouts. Yet, that’s exactly what is happening, thanks to an ghastly $1.2 million grant scheme intended to boost agritourism, and encourage diversification and innovation in farming. The Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, celebrates fall by shooting pumpkins hundreds of feet through the air at the expense of taxpayers. Much of the town’s $315,569 “special events” budget is blown on staging and promoting the event each October. The Visit Aurora Promotion Board, the local tourism agency, also uses a chunk of its $550,000 taxpayer-funded budget to underwrite the expense of smashing pumpkins over great distances.

TPA Goes Trick or Treating

Post author:David Williams
Post published:October 29, 2012
Post category:Broadband Chattanooga EPB David Williams Debt Defense Deficit Taxpayers Protection Alliance

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), government funded broadband, and a tax increase proposed by the World Health Organization. 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 many treats with a debt of $16 trillion and a Congress (especially the Senate) that refuses to cut spending.