TPA’s Tricks and Treats for 2020
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
October 30, 2020
We’ve all heard the campfire stories of a terrifying and invisible foe that feeds on fear and causes the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up. Yes, we’re talking about the coronavirus, which has caused households and policymakers no end of dread (but has at least spurred some interesting costume ideas). Hopefully, Americans will still be able to go trick or treating despite coronavirus restrictions and fears of microbes haunting your candy. But some of the worst tricks and best treats this year have already been delivered by the federal government. Below, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) delivers some tricks and treats for this unusual Halloween:
“I (taxpayers) pay dead people”
You don’t need a “sixth sense” to know that the government shouldn’t be sending checks to dead people. Well, guess what, spoiler alert: the government mailed more than $1 billion worth of “stimulus” checks to more than a million dead people.
Lawmakers also used the moniker of “relief spending” to personally enrich themselves and deliver hefty benefits to the businesses of wealthy individuals such as Robert de Niro and Kanye West. It’s high time to put this fiscal ghoulishness to rest once and for all and embrace needed spending reforms.
But unfortunately, lawmakers and the Trump administration have kept any notion of fiscal discipline in the casket, leeching trillions of dollars of relief spending from taxpayers. The deficit this year is now more than $4 trillion – or more than $30,000 per household. Had the government sworn off sticking its cold, dead hands into Americans’ pocketbooks, struggling households would have more money to pay the bills – and watch new Bruce Willis movies on demand.
Surprise billing “compromise” would be a Hellraiser for patients
Sometimes, lawmakers are so out-of-touch with doctors and patients that they seem to be…conjured from another dimension. Every year, about 1 in 7 patients receive a surprise medical bill from an out-of-network doctor after being discharged from an in-network medical facility. This problem is especially dire now during the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes. But lawmakers such as Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) have used this spectacularly spooky issue to push for price controls, which would make the problem far worse.
Alarmingly, even lawmakers like Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has previously spoken out against price fixing and wants a free market solution to surprise billing, seem keen to “compromise” and allow for nationwide rate-setting. Policymakers are hellbent on demonizing doctors to score political points, but misguided policies to cut payments to providers would backfire spectacularly and throw the entire U.S. healthcare system onto a burning pyre. Lawmakers ought to refrain from turning our system into a puzzle box for doctors and patients.
Attack of the 50-foot tech regulator
There’s a monster on the loose, and it’s coming for your Amazon Prime packages and hot takes on Twitter. Even after promising to right-size the federal government and keep regulation under control, the Trump administration and lawmakers such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are cheering on the 50-foot regulator as it runs roughshod on consumer choice and market innovation. “Populist” policymakers have praised the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit against Google after the agency filed a suit complaining that the company is abusing its market share to stifle the competition.
Never mind that consumers and advertisers could easily go elsewhere if they aren’t happy with the search engine’s policies. It’s just that…they usually are. Hawley and co. want to expand this antitrust war to include Amazon and punish the e-commerce giant for…providing products that consumers value. These advocates of supersized government also have their sights set on social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook and want to bury these platforms under an avalanche of liability. It’s time to put some restraints on government and build that shrink-ray…fast.
Department of Defense is haunted by crony 5G network
Deep in the shadows a secretive company wants to build a 5G government owned and operated 5G network. Pressure abounds for the White House to grant a spookily stupid no-bid contract to politically-connected poltergeist Rivada Networks. While there’s nothing wrong with relying on the individual hand of private enterprise to guide the 5G deployment process, things go awry quickly without a spirited, competitive process between multiple companies.
In this case, Rivada wants to use its political clout to preempt its competitors and control the internet market in the U.S. Rivada Senior VP Brian Carney has repeatedly pushed back on the (correct) assertion that the company is seeking the keys to a nationalized 5G network. According to the senior executive, the prospect of 5G nationalization keeps coming back from the dead. Well, it’s long past time to lay the idea to rest once and for all.
Almond (De)Joy finally delivered to taxpayers, consumers
After years of the United States Postal Service (USPS) racking up debts and disappointing service expectations, taxpayers and consumers are finally getting some sweet relief. Since being appointed Postmaster General on June 15, private-sector logistics guru Louis DeJoy hit the ground running and implemented some much-needed reforms to bite into the agency’s $160 billion debt. DeJoy’s focus on curtailing overtime was long overdue. A recent Inspector General report noted, “From fiscal year (FY) 2014 to FY 2019, annual overtime costs increased from $3.7 to $5 billion (or 35 percent), while overtime hours increased from 98.9 to 129.7 million hours (or 31 percent).”
Unfortunately, these reforms have been derailed by nutsy critics alleging a conspiracy to kneecap the USPS ahead of November elections. Politicians and pundits have blamed PMG DeJoy for a summer slowdown in the mail, even though the slowdown preceded overtime changes and likely had more to do with COVID-19 related disruptions. Mail delivery times have fortunately rebounded, though DeJoy faces serious obstacles to continued reform due to Congressional inquiries and a mound of court injunctions. Thankfully, DeJoy remains committed to crunching costs and averting taxpayer bailouts and higher postal prices for households.
Quoth the IG, Nevermore, Nevermore
Edgar Allen Poe’s hometown has seen scary times as former Mayor Catherine Pugh sits in jail and Delegate Nick Mosby and his wife (Baltimore City prosecutor) Marilyn Mosby face a tax lien for unpaid taxes. On top of that, Baltimore has yet to ditch its shady, longstanding master lease agreement with Columbia-based finance firm Grant Capital Management.
(With apologies to Poe) But, while the city nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at the city’s chamber door.
It wasn’t the raven, but rather Baltimore City IG Isabel Mercedes Cumming. Days after being chosen as Baltimore’s IG in 2018, Cumming made clear that “nobody is off limits. Overtime situations, theft of time. Purchase cards. There are so many areas that need to be looked at…I love going after white collar criminals.” At the time, then-Mayor Pugh sung her praises, stating Cumming “knows how to operate independently to be fair and just.” Maybe Pugh would not have been so effusive if she knew that Cumming would be actively investigating the Mayor’s Office for fraud. After media reports revealed that then-Mayor Pugh had cozy financial ties to the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), the IG’s office began to take a closer look at the city leader’s money dealings.
Baltimore taxpayers hope that wasteful spending and corruption in charm city will be “nevermore, nevermore.”
Vaccine may be the silver bullet needed to defeat virus
America is trapped in the claws of the deadly coronavirus, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives across the country. Businesses have been wolfing down taxpayer dollars just to stay open and weather unpredictable shutdowns. Fortunately, we may soon have the silver bullet necessary to stop the vicious foe in its tracks. While it’s unclear which company will come out with the first vaccine, the herculean development effort is resulting in some of the fastest research breakthroughs in modern medical history.
Despite some tragic setbacks, producers continue to test vaccine candidates on brave volunteers and have committed to stockpiling hundreds of millions of doses for test vaccines – ensuring that the first proven product will quickly be widely available. But in the meantime, policymakers must resist the urge to politicize the vaccine. Things could get hairy real fast if, for example, the U.S. follows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) lead and refuses to accept the recommendations of United Kingdom regulators. The stakes cannot be higher, but we are on the verge of slaying the coronavirus beast.
Thanks to Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 5G is no floating apparition
Most invisible things are quite spooky. But there’s nothing frightening about the digital domain – except for the prospect of slow, unreliable internet. Fortunately, the FCC has made it its mission over the past three years to turbocharge the internet and make America 5G ready. Like any good campfire story, the promises of 5G sound otherworldly and smack of the supernatural. After all, it’s hard to imagine internet that’s at least ten times faster than the 4G LTE status-quo and can enable remote surgeries thousands of miles away.
But 5G is entering the realm of reality, thanks to FCC policies reducing regulatory barriers and pole attachment fees. Thanks to this deployment-friendly agenda, providers will face few hurdles to setting up backpack-sized small cell deployments across the country and ditching the current, costly network buildout process. And, the FCC’s dogged determination to free up spectrum for 5G deployment means that providers – and their consumers – will have more than enough bandwidth to spare. As more Americans than ever get connected to the digital domain, improvements to quality of life are more than just an apparition.
