Page 371 – Taxpayers Protection Alliance

It is Critical to Remember to Protect Digital Consumers During National Consumer Protection Week

Post author:David Williams
Post published:March 9, 2012
Post category:David Williams Digital Goods State Issues Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Many people may not know it but this week (March 4 through March 10) is National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW). According to the official website, NCPW “is a coordinated campaign that encourages consumers nationwide to take full advantage of their consumer rights and make better-informed decisions.” There is no better to protect consumers than to safeguard them from the deluge of new and confusing taxes that confront consumers every single day. With many states mandated to balance their budgets and many state legislatures reluctant to cut wasteful government spending, states and localities have recently begun going after the popular and fast-growing digital goods industry ("apps", song and movie downloads, and eBooks) as a source of new tax-revenue for their coffers.

Continued Testing on BPA Wastes Scarce Tax Dollars

Post author:David Williams
Post published:March 7, 2012
Post category:David Williams Food and Drug Administration Taxpayers Protection Alliance

From the satirical Golden Fleece Awards bestowed by the late Sen. William Proxmire to the legendary $640 toilet seat purchased by the Pentagon (and the more recent request for federal funding of a cowboy poetry festival), Americans are no strangers to wasteful government spending. There is no shortage of examples of goofy programs politicians want to pay for with tax dollars. Government-funded research is one large area of questionable spending. When Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) uncovered that taxpayers paid $593,000 to research why chimps like to throw their poop, some folks may have laughed. But the tens of millions of dollars being spent for similarly specious research into the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) is no laughing matter.

The Fiscal and Physical Health of Selling Spectrum

Post author:David Williams
Post published:March 5, 2012
Post category:David Williams Healthcare Obamacare Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance

The issue of government owned spectrum is a debate that has been raging for many years but fiscal and technological urgency have driven the issue closer and closer to the headlines. As part of the payroll tax cut legislation, there was a provision to sell certain parts of the spectrum to “pay” for the cost of the legislation*. A couple weeks ago CNN did a week long report on the spectrum crunch. According to Part 1 of the series, “The U.S. mobile phone industry is running out of the airwaves necessary to provide voice, text and Internet services to its customers. The problem, known as the ‘spectrum crunch,’ threatens to increase the number of dropped calls, slow down data speeds and raise customers' prices. It will also whittle down the nation's number of wireless carriers and create a deeper financial divide between those companies that have capacity and those that don't.”

Another Procurement Fiasco at the Pentagon

Post author:David Williams
Post published:March 2, 2012
Post category:David Williams Defense Taxpayers Protection Alliance

The Department of Defense has struggled with awarding procurement contracts for many years. The poster child for what can go wrong was the Air Force’s procurement for refueling-tankers (it took the Pentagon three attempts and eight years to get it right). On February 28, 2012, the Air Force was once again in the middle of another procurement controversy when it admitted mistakes in awarding a contract for the Light Air Support aircraft to Embraer. According to Reuters, “The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday abruptly canceled a $355 million contract awarded to Sierra Nevada Corp and Brazil's Embraer for 20 light-support aircraft, citing problems with documents used to make the decision.” The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) was critical of the decision by the Pentagon to exclude American aircraft manufacturing company Hawker Beechcraft from competing for the project. In a baffling decision, Hawker's award winning AT-6 was disqualified from the Air Force Light Air Support (LAS) competition with no explanation, leaving only Embraer, a Brazilian company, as the sole-source winner. This exposed millions of tax dollars to waste, fraud, and abuse. Now, it appears that TPA’s concerns were well founded (read full press release here).

More Bad News from President Obama’s 2013 Budget

Post author:David Williams
Post published:February 29, 2012
Post category:Appropriations Omnibus Appropriations Taxpayers Protection Alliance

When President Obama released his fiscal year 2013 budget on February 13, 2012, there were many nagging questions by taxpayers. The budget predicted deficits as far as the eye could see with a feeble attempt at cutting spending (read more here). What many people didn’t see was a step backwards in transparency with the budget secretly stripping three anti-lobbying provisions from last year’s appropriations bill. One federal program ready to take full advantage is The Department of Health and Human Service’s (HHS) Prevention and Public Health Fund. The Prevention and Public Health Fund is no stranger to using taxpayer dollars to lobby for higher taxes and has already spent more than $1 billion towards “wellness programs.” The Taxpayers Protection Alliance is very concerned that tax dollars may once again be used to lobby for bigger government (read press release here).

Cutting the Corporate Tax Rate: How Low Can You Go? (VIDEO)

Post author:David Williams
Post published:February 27, 2012
Post category:Corporate Tax David Williams Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance

On Wednesday February 22, 2012, the Obama Administration announced its proposal to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent. This comes less than two months before Japan cuts its corporate tax rate (on April 1, 2012) to leave the United States with the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Cutting the rate from 35 percent to 28 percent is a good start, but since 1992, the average OECD combined statutory rate has been lower than America’s and it has continued to fall. Today, it is nearly 10 percent lower (25.1 percent) than America’s 35 percent. Add in the state and local taxes that U.S.-based companies pay and the gap widens even further. The appetite for corporate tax cuts may also be supported by a wide variety of folks and not just corporate big wigs. According to The Hill, “The Hill Poll also found that 73 percent of likely voters believe corporations should pay a lower rate than the current 35 percent, as both the White House and Republicans push plans to lower rates.”

UNintended Consequences of an Internet Takeover and a New Tax

Post author:David Williams
Post published:February 24, 2012
Post category:David Williams Internet Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance Telecommunications

The United Nations has been very busy these days with talk of taking over the Internet and the World Health Organization (WHO) moving at lightning speed to implement new tobacco taxes. According to The Daily Caller, “On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new treaty giving the United Nations unprecedented powers over the Internet. Dozens of countries, including Russia and China, are pushing hard to reach this goal by year’s end. As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last June, his goal and that of his allies is to establish ‘international control over the Internet’ through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a treaty-based organization under U.N. auspices.” The WHO describes its new tax regime, The Solidarity Tobacco Contribution (STC) as "a novel approach developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to the recommendation made by the High-Level Taskforce on Innovative Financing for Health Systems to ‘expand the mandatory solidarity levy on airline tickets and explore the technical viability of other solidarity levies on tobacco and currency transactions.’” Both actions could mean bad news for consumers and taxpayers.

Make Up Your Mind President Obama

Post author:David Williams
Post published:February 23, 2012
Post category:David Williams Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance

In a recent visit to a Washington Boeing plant, while touting their planes, President Obama asked Congress to continue to fund the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im), the poster child for taxpayer-funded corporate welfare. The setting of the Boeing plant was no accident considering that Boeing has been a major recipient of Ex-Im Bank funds for years. This comes on the heels of the Obama-backed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) trying to stop Boeing from moving its plant to South Carolina and the expiration of a tax credit for jet sales.

Seattle Should Turn the Page on The New Phone Book Fee

Post author:David Williams
Post published:February 21, 2012
Post category:David Williams State Issues Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance

A battle has been brewing in Seattle, Washington and it doesn’t involve over-priced coffee or lattes. This lawsuit involves a fee that is being charged to Yellow Page companies. Yes, that’s right, the Yellow Pages. According to a February 1, 2012 story in the Seattle Times, “Despite a federal lawsuit, the Seattle City Council on Monday voted to stick with a 14-cent fee it plans to charge Yellow Pages distributors for every book that lands on Seattle residents' doorsteps.” While most people thought the Yellow Pages were a relic of the past, it is still a popular way for people to find businesses. Beneath the surface of Seattle’s fee (read: tax) is the claim of helping the citizens of Seattle. Across the country consumers have seen plastic bag taxes as cities and municipalities mask these fees as a way to serve their communities. The reality is that these money raised by these “fees” just goes to serve bloated inefficient governments.

With Shrinking Defense Dollars Missile System Should be Scrapped

Post author:David Williams
Post published:February 17, 2012
Post category:David Williams Defense Taxpayers Protection Alliance

The release of the President’s budget this week showed a shrinking Defense budget. This economic reality has once again sparked a conversation about the controversial and expensive Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS). Originally conceived as the replacement to the Patriot missile system, MEADS is being jointly built by the United States, Italy, and Germany with the Americans shouldering more than 50 percent of the cost. Even though the Army doesn’t want the project, there was an additional $800 million allocated for the project through 2013 ($400 million in President Obama’s latest budget). Taxpayer groups have expressed their opposition to funding the program over the past years. Now, according to the Washington Business Journal (WBJ), “Defense officials are expressing doubts about the department's ability to meet its obligations to help fund an international missile defense system, despite President Barack Obama's support of the program in the fiscal 2013 budget proposal.”