Read more about the article “All of the Above” Energy Policy Actually Means “More of our Tax Dollars” Wasted

“All of the Above” Energy Policy Actually Means “More of our Tax Dollars” Wasted

President Barack Obama has spent much of the campaign touting his “all of the above” energy strategy — a proposal which, to hear him explain it, will reduce America’s reliance on foreign oil, save families and businesses money at the pump and position the United States as the global leader in clean energy.” Sounds great, right? Almost too good to be true? That’s because it is. Obama’s “all of the above” energy scheme will actually pump billions of tax dollars into economically unjustifiable green energy schemes, attacks America’s coal industry, limit domestic energy exploration, and raises the cost of products and services through a series of mandates and taxes. Worst of all, Obama’s plan to tinker with fuel mileage regulations would actually kill thousands of Americans.

Continue Reading“All of the Above” Energy Policy Actually Means “More of our Tax Dollars” Wasted
Read more about the article New Report Shows That a Little Commonsense Can Go A Long Way

New Report Shows That a Little Commonsense Can Go A Long Way

Don’t believe what they tell you, there is a way to reduce government spending that doesn’t involve raising taxes or making difficult choices about what programs to cut. A great way to reduce the amount that the government spends simply involves using the money in both a wise and careful manner which is something our government appears to have forgotten for quite a long time. As with most things, when people work smarter, rather than harder we all stand to benefit. The same can be said for the way government should work in order to produce the most efficient, helpful results. A recently introduced campaign, “Cut the Deficit,” launched by Rosslyn Analytics, is one way to ensure government uses its resources, your tax dollars, in the most effective, cost-saving way possible. With its “Cut the Deficit” campaign, Rosslyn Analytics will educate taxpayers and public sector employees about ways to better manage taxpayer dollars and deliver savings. The prospect of saving $100 billion by improving public sector procurement practices is a prospect that should cause all elected officials to perk up. “Public sector procurement is the biggest lever that the government - federal, state and local - has to deliver cash savings, support job creation and reaffirm the US’ global economic leadership," said Colin Cram, the author of the report. In fact according to the non-partisan group, the United States could create more than 2.2 million jobs by improving the way the federal government, states and cities manage the country’s $2 trillion annual public procurement spending.

Continue ReadingNew Report Shows That a Little Commonsense Can Go A Long Way
Read more about the article Wednesday Roundup: Obamacare and Green Building Standards

Wednesday Roundup: Obamacare and Green Building Standards

Blog postings by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) usually focus on one issue. Today, because there seems to be so much news about a variety of issues, TPA will be highlighting 2 issues, a new report about the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) that was created by Obamacare and a story in USA Today about the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building standard (click here to read an op-ed about LEED by TPA in Real Clear Policy). The Hill ran a story today about a report that was released today by the American Action Forum, which is headed by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). TPA has been long critical of IPAB and has spent the better part of the year talking to taxpayers about the problems with IPAB. TPA is concerned with the proposed changes to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building standards known as LEEDv4. The federal government and many state governments have adopted LEED as their green building standard which unnecessarily increases the cost of construction. The costs of LEED for American taxpayers is exorbitant and this could be addressed by incorporating other green building rating systems to introduce competition to help bring costs down.

Continue ReadingWednesday Roundup: Obamacare and Green Building Standards
Read more about the article The Federal Government’s Dairy Err

The Federal Government’s Dairy Err

Often times we hear how Congress and other elements of DC are broken. To fortify this statement, many point to the fact that Washington can’t get anything done, but that’s not always a bad thing. Take the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM) Act, aka the new farm bill, for example. The passage of this bill was held up not because of the milk subsidies portion – though it should have been (more on this later) – the part that stopped the wheels from rolling is the controversial food stamp provision, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which House Republicans want to cut. And for good reason, the funding should be cut. Let’s look at just one example of how SNAP benefits are being used. Fox News reported one of the more colorful entries from Sen. Tom Coburn’s 2012 Wastebook, “widespread abuse of the food stamp system -- including an exotic dancer who earned more than $85,000 a year in tips, but also collected nearly $1,000 a month in food stamps while spending $9,000 during that time period on ‘cosmetic enhancements.’” Thankfully, Congressmen were unable to come to an agreement on the SNAP payments portion of the farm bill before leaving town to campaign for the upcoming election. As a result of their inability to strike a deal, the taxpayers may just end up being saved a few billion that will not be paid out in the form of farm subsidies – some of the largest and most heavily lobbied for in all of DC. Generating all the hoopla this time around is the dairy subsidy and the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC).

Continue ReadingThe Federal Government’s Dairy Err
Read more about the article TPA Joins Coalition to Oppose Federal Bailouts for Government-Run Property Insurance Plans

TPA Joins Coalition to Oppose Federal Bailouts for Government-Run Property Insurance Plans

The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) joined with seven other taxpayer and free market groups to oppose H.R. 6477, the so-called "Taxpayer Protection Act," introduced by Representative Albio Sires (D-NJ). Even though the bill is named the “Taxpayer Protection Act,” the bill does not protect taxpayers and could potentially burden taxpayers with billions of dollars in liabilities by creating a massive federal government-run reinsurance plan and establishing a loan program to facilitate state bailouts. The reinsurance and bailout provisions in H.R. 6477 represent a tremendous expansion of the federal government's role in insuring and guaranteeing against losses that are now covered by the private sector. In establishing such programs, this legislation would discourage fundamental reform in states like Florida, whose ruinous Hurricane Catastrophe Fund has upwards of $18 billion in liabilities and would be unable to pay billions of dollars in claims if a sufficiently large storm were to strike. Perhaps even worse, it could encourage other states to create similar programs that are designed to fail in order to capitalize on easy money from federal taxpayers.

Continue ReadingTPA Joins Coalition to Oppose Federal Bailouts for Government-Run Property Insurance Plans
Read more about the article New Report by Sen. Coburn Exposes $18 Billion in Government Waste

New Report by Sen. Coburn Exposes $18 Billion in Government Waste

Attention: all who are stuck in reliving your high school glory days – think Matthew Mc Conaughey’s character in Dazed and Confused – the federal government wants to help you! Prom was likely the cherry on top, the event to top all events, for most seniors in high school. There’s a good chance the local government via funds from the school district may have helped fund a high school prom. But when it comes to an adult prom, that’s an event that needs more money and from a bigger government, the federal government. According to an oversight report, “Wastebook 2012,” recently released from Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Okla.), the federal government has generously provided just over a half-a-million dollars to fund “Prom Week,” a video game that allows adult taxpayers to relive prom night. Despite the fact our government has huge entitlement programs on the verge of collapse, Washington has no problem when it comes to sending a clear signal of what it sees as a priority – laughable programs like video games to relive prom. The problem is this stupid program is one of many, which in sum cost taxpayers more than $18 billion in 2012 alone. Sen. Coburn’s “Wastebook 2012” provides 99 other examples of “unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects spread throughout the federal government.”

Continue ReadingNew Report by Sen. Coburn Exposes $18 Billion in Government Waste
Read more about the article Lafayette Taxpayers Deserve the Truth About Fiber Network

Lafayette Taxpayers Deserve the Truth About Fiber Network

On Wednesday, Sept. 12 Lafayette, Louisiana taxpayers received a gift. That was the day when the Louisiana Public Service Commission, which regulates all utilities in the state, voted to conduct an additional audit of LUS Fiber, Lafayette’s government-owned broadband network. While the network has undergone audits in the past, a new state-administered audit is critical. Four months ago it was reported the network was racking up debt at the rate of $45,000 per day. When called before the Lafayette Council a few months later, LUS Fiber administrators, in a near miraculous reversal, said the system was in a “strong financial position.” The Taxpayers Protection Alliance, and all taxpayers, should be skeptical of this turn around since system administrators won’t reveal the number of subscribers they have to account for LUS Fiber’s newfound positive position. A state audit of LUS Fiber would verify those numbers and give taxpayers the full story once and for all on the financial viability of LUS Fiber.

Continue ReadingLafayette Taxpayers Deserve the Truth About Fiber Network
Read more about the article Your Tax Money Lies Over the Ocean

Your Tax Money Lies Over the Ocean

Members of Congress often talk a good game about being guardians of taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, many politicians don’t follow their words with action. In a rare, but welcomed development, four members of Congress sent a letter to Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski and Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Lawrence Strickling earlier this week about $1 million of taxpayer dollars spent as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka stimulus) for broadband deployment. In the letter, Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Greg Walden (R-Oregon), Lee Terry (R-Neb.), and John Shimkus (R-Ill.) explained that, “We are troubled by reports that the FCC and NTIA spent more than $1 million in taxpayer ‘stimulus’ dollars on broadband speed tests that produced no American jobs and merely reaffirmed what we already knew: the billions in private capital that broadband providers have invested to reach 95 percent of the country is delivering rapidly accelerating service. Now the FCC plans to expand this speed-test program to mobile broadband services.” This issue, like all the other stimulus boondoggles, is that the “stimulus” failed to create jobs, but succeeded in wasting taxpayer dollars. What makes this example of stimulus waste even more egregious than most is that taxpayer money went to SamKnows, a U.K. company, which according to Recovery.gov created no jobs.

Continue ReadingYour Tax Money Lies Over the Ocean
Read more about the article Department of Homeland Security: Fusion Centers of Controversy

Department of Homeland Security: Fusion Centers of Controversy

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has been investigating the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fusion centers. And, according to a October 2, 2012 press release from Sen. Coburn’s office “The investigation found that DHS intelligence officers assigned to state and local fusion centers produced intelligence of ‘uneven quality – oftentimes shoddy, rarely timely, sometimes endangering citizens’ civil liberties and Privacy Act protections, occasionally taken from already-published public sources, and more often than not unrelated to terrorism.’” The 141-page bipartisan report used to describe DHS’s fusion centers should send a chill down taxpayers’ spines. Fusion centers were created after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 when federal and state governments decided that a need existed to improve and enhance communications sharing ability among local, state and national law enforcement. The way to address this need was supposed to be found in implementing a nationwide network of “fusion centers.” There are currently 77 fusion centers scattered across the country today. According to the Washington Post, fusion centers have had bi-partisan support considering that both President George W. Bush and Obama have promoted fusion centers as “essential weapons in the fight to build a nationwide network that would keep the country safe from terrorism.” Despite the lofty goals of fusion centers to facilitate, “increased collaboration and cooperation among all levels of law enforcement,” these DHS centers have become known as “pools of ineptitude, waste, and civil liberty intrusions. . .”

Continue ReadingDepartment of Homeland Security: Fusion Centers of Controversy