Posts in "Government Waste"

By Benjamin Levine at 10:20AM

Nov 2, 2011

A Case against the NEA

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was established in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson and is hailed by liberals for promoting necessary art in America; when conservatives propose cutting it from the budget, all hell breaks loose. But the NEA should be one of the easiest things to cut! There is absolutely no reason the government should be involved in the arts. I took a closer look at the NEA and what I found absolutely reiterated my assertion: Cut it all.

The NEA promotes a political agenda First, the NEA promotes art that supports the state. In a controversial conference call from 2009 between NEA and White House officials, independent artists, and the Corporation for National and Community Service, there was a clear agenda for the arts: Support Barack Obama. Russell Simmons' political director, Michael Skolnick, was quoted during the conference call claiming that the “White House and folks in the NEA” asked him to “bring together the independent artists community around the country” for that meeting. Why? Because of “the role [they] played during the campaign for the president and also during his first 200 some days” in office. Obama certainly is not the only president to do this but is the most recent.

Studying Politics

Since I graduated from college in May 2009, I've gained some experience in studying America's unique political system. While I was in college, I was introduced to the American National Elections Studies, or ANES, from Michigan.

I saw this graphic from ANES and imagined this picture has a great thing to tell us:

or even this one:

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By Elliot Engstrom at 1:17PM

Feb 26, 2011

Government-funded intimidation in NC

I recently posted about Andrew Henson of the Civitas Institute's expose of grossly wasteful spending by the North Carolina Child Care Services Association -- an expose that garnered an angry response from the government-funded CCSA and its supporters. And now, CCSA, without attempting to disprove anything written by the Civitas Institute, is threatening Civitas with a defamation lawsuit that would be funded almost exclusively with taxpayer money. Civitas writes:

CCSA did not produce a single example of actual “falsehoods” contained in our articles.
We need your help to raise the funds necessary to fight the attempts by this, and other, taxpayer-funded organizations to silence our story on the mismanagement of government money.
CCSA’s own response to the investigation substantiated the original story Civitas published. Now they are using a law firm to try and scare us into pulling our story and “…issue retractions of the falsehoods [Civitas has] disseminated.”
While their threats and bullying don’t worry me what does worry me are the legal bills that result from us defending our first amendment rights! CCSA has a budget of over $30,000,000 according to the last published report and over $29,000,000 came from government sources. Our contributions last year, all from private sources, came to less than $1,000,000.

Read the rest of Civitas' posting here.

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By Elliot Engstrom at 11:16AM

Feb 23, 2011

Fighting government waste in NC

Andrew Henson of the Raleigh-based Civitas Institute has been doing great work exposing government waste in the field of childcare in North Carolina. In his first piece on the subject published in January, Henson wrote about how Child Care Services Association (CCSA) abruptly dropped 250 children who had been supported by Smart Start Scholarship, a program for government subsidized childcare. CCSA claimed that these actions were a result of state budget cuts. However, Henson claims that the real culprit is massive mismanagement of taxpayer funds by CCSA:

CCSA’s budget numbers reveal an exorbitant amount of spending leading up to the mid-year budget cuts. While CCSA was budgeted $3.4 million for fiscal year 2010-11, which spans from July 1 to June 30, a report showed that 6 months into the fiscal year they had already spent over two thirds of their budget, spending at a pace that would have overspent their total budgeted amount by $1.2 million by the end of the year. Serious questions remain as to how such a gross structural deficit could have gone unnoticed or unreported.

Needless to say, CCSA was not happy with Henson's expose. In response, the agency stated that “CCSA has consistently been awarded a clean bill of financial health," and claimed that Henson “used aggressive, inappropriate and threatening tactics to bully CCSA” to supply him with information.

Pick an Agency, Any Agency: Amtrak

As fiscal conservatives continue to seek avenues through which to derail the federal gravy train, it helps from time to time to take a look at the mind-numbingly long list of federal departments and agencies that are on board. Of course, this list is hardly exhaustive – just one that is publicly available – but it can certainly give us some concrete ideas on how and where to cut the spending.

Today: The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak)

Amtrak Logo

About: “The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak (reporting mark AMTK), is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States.”
FY 2010 Budget: $2.02 billion (Source)

As I recently contemplated a trip in several weeks from New York City to visit friends in Washington, DC, I considered my options. Being on a tight budget as a college student, a flight was out of the question – besides, the trip isn't so far, and I'd rather not subject myself to whatever the airport security standards happen to be in a few weeks. Fortunately, I turned to one of the many privately-run bus lines that operates on a 24/7 basis for a great deal: at only $17 round-trip, a 4-and-a-half hour bus ride would be a breeze, especially with the wireless internet.

Tax Day Ideas: National Debt Display

Make a massive display on your campus of maybe the largest monkey on the legislators' back -- the national debt.

Make the display on a large poster or a large piece of cardboard.
Put an individual number on 14 seperate pieces of paper. Line them up and you should have a pretty big display.
Hand out literature about the debt and how even though we're taxed more and more our debt continually increases.

Be creative; there are plenty of possibilities that can be used to make the large national debt display.

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By Adam Fowler at 9:32PM

Apr 2, 2010

Recount?

Coincidentally, on the official "Census Day," my household received a second 2010 Census form to fill out. Not a different one, the same form. I had already filled the original form out a few weeks ago and returned it; you know, because I didn't want that fine.

The Census Director explained why on his blog:

... for areas of the country that have traditionally returned the mailed form at lower rates, we will mail a replacement questionnaire ... in some areas, we will mail a replacement form to every address, whether they returned a form or not.

That's typical government efficiency for you. Makes me wonder what would happen if I filled it out again. Would my community get even more federal government money that is supposedly our "fair share" (read: money from other taxpayers for activities and programs not authorized by the U.S. Constitution)?

Perhaps I should have some fun this time by returning it with a note attached quoting Art. 1, Sec. 2 of the Constitution, which authorizes the "actual enumeration" of people, not their race or ethnicity and definitely not other information that is included in the longer form known as the "American Community Survey." Then again, why waste money to mail it back and have it go through the system again? Enough money has already been wasted on these questions and the dubious government activities they enable.

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By Roy Antoun at 7:02PM

Feb 24, 2010

Death and Taxes 2010

This says it all (click for a larger image):

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By Sam Swedberg at 1:28PM

Feb 10, 2010

Government in the Snow Melting Business?

Even in a blizzard D.C. can prove the government's inefficiency...or should I say "insanity"? The Wall Street Journal published a great piece about D.C.'s woes in regards to this storm. The best part:

Earlier this decade, the D.C Department of Public Works bought an industrial snow melter, but it broke down and they haven't been able to replace the parts. "We got a big contraption that melts 30 tons of snow an hour," spokeswoman Nancee Lyons said. "It didn't really work that well for us."

Translation: we've wasted your money. Read the rest of the article here.

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