Tax Dollars at
Work
Taxpayers Billed for Oil Portraits of Federal Big Shots
Feds Spent $2 Million on Program for One Intern
Feds Give Millions in Food Stamps to Ineligible
Applicants
GSA Employees Get Fat Bonuses Paid By Recession-Weary
Taxpayers
GSA Spent $270k on Music & Food at Fed Conference
Record Debt Ahead for U.S.
'Death Tax' Will Force Families to Sell, Rather Than Inherit,
Property
Number of Americans Filing Disability Claims Outpaces Americans
Finding Jobs
60-Day Return Policy Makes Abuse of Tax Credit for Chevy Volt
Likely
Congresswoman Says Agency Spent Millions on Lavish
Conference
Situation Normal: Feds Overpaid $14 Billion in Benefits
White House Salaries Increase
Federal Jobs Increased While Private Sector
Weakened
Congress Squanders Cash on Useless Resolutions
Federal Judges Enjoy Lavish $1 Million
'Conference'
Billions
Wasted on Ineffective Federal Job Training
Programs
Federal
Workers Get $430 Million in Bonuses
U.S.
Tax Dollars Going to Taliban in Afghanistan
Costly Foreign Meddling
The U.S. will spend nearly $115 million of taxpayer money
this year to try to influence the politics inside other
people's countries. Congress authorized giving
$114,770,000 to the United Nations Democracy Fund which claims
to finance "global democratization efforts." Since 2001,
Americans have handed over more than $350 million to the
fund.
Congress is spending $5,870,000 this year on the "East West
Center" in Hawaii. The purpose? To promote "improved
relations" among nations in the Pacific. Good grief,
can't those folks improve their own relations without getting
paid by American taxpayers to do it? The Center is the
brainchild of Hawaii Democrat Sen. Daniel Inouye.
The jerks who the run the U.S. government are also spending
$2,094,000 of taxpayer money on the Asia Foundation, an outfit
that claims it is "committed to the development of peaceful,
prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific region." Does
that mean that the people of the Asia-Pacific region are not
committed to peace, prosperity and openness, and that we have
to promote those things for them? Jeesh.
Clueless Chu
The Department of Energy announced last month that it would
award a $100,000 prize in taxpayers' cash to software
developers who could create a mobile telephone computer
application that shows consumers how much energy they are
using. There's just one big problem, though. Energy
Secretary Steven Chu, an outspoken opponent of oil-derived
fuels, said the purpose was to show consumers their energy
consumption rate so they can figure out how to reduce it.
"The Apps for Energy competition supports the president's goals
of helping consumers lower their energy costs and increasing
public access to data by challenging software developers to
create apps that provide energy usage data... Improving
consumers access to data about how they use energy in their
homes will help them save money on their energy bills," he
said. Trouble is, there are already about two-dozen
applications available to do that. The apps Home Energy,
Power Simulator, Our Green Home, pConsumpt, Electricity Cost
Calculator, Watt, MeterClient, Saia S-Energy Manager, and
others, were all created without any government help or prize
money from Clueless Chu.
Party Time for the Feds
When you've got trillions of other people's money to spend,
why not have a party? The General Services
Administration, which manages all the property owned by the
federal government, spent nearly $1 million on a lavish
"conference" near Las Vegas for 300 employees that included
clowns, a mind reader, and an extravagant reception that alone
cost $31,208. GSA Inspector General Brian D. Miller's
investigation revealed that GSA spent $823,000 for the four-day
conference held at the opulent M Resort and Casino.
Miller said expenses included $130,000 for employee travel to
find a location for the event. Other expenses included $5,600
for three in-room catered parties; $44 per-person breakfasts;
$75,000 for a "team building" exercise -- which turned out to
be putting together a bicycle; $146,000 for food and drinks;
$6,325 on commemorative coins in velvet boxes for participants
as mementos. The $31,208 reception included $7,000 of
sushi.
Taxmageddon Coming to a Paycheck Near
You?
Soon after the 2012 presidential election, several tax
breaks are slated to expire and several new taxes will go into
affect, causing what some commentors are calling
"taxmageddon." On December 31 the Bush-era tax cuts are
scheduled to expire, which means federal tax rates will rise on
investment income, estates and gifts, and every income
level. The Washington Post reported that "the rate
everyone pays on the first $8,700 of wages will jump from 10
percent to 15 percent." In addition, the marriage penalty
will return, and the value of the child tax credit will drop
from $1,000 to $500. Also set for January first, the
Social Security payroll tax reduction now in effect will
expire, causing the rate to jump from 4.2 percent now to 6.2
percent. At the same time, new Medicare taxes enacted in
President Obama's federal takeover of the health insurance
industry will land on higher-income households. Unless Congress
and the president act, it will amount to a $5 trillion, 10-year
tax hike, the biggest in history.
Banker Supremacy
The military-industrial complex is about to become the
Obama-Banker complex. Republican staffers from the Senate
Budget Committee report that under President Barack Obama's
proposed federal budget projections, the U.S. government will
spend more by 2019 to pay the interest on the national debt
than it will pay for national defense. By 2019, the
defense budget is projected to reach more than $560
billion. Shortly thereafter, interest payments on the
national debt will climb to $600 billion. Total public debt
outstanding as of the beginning of April was more than $15
trillion.
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