Where is the Money Going?
10 Best Agency Budget Savings Responding to Obama Request
President Barack Obama’s order back in April for his cabinet to locate $100 million in budget cuts has reportedly yielded just that, and then some. The Office of Management and Budget has announced federal offices found 77 cost-savings moves that ... read more
Postal Service Classified as Financial “High Risk”
With more and more Americans turning away from using mail service, causing its business to plummet, the U.S. Postal Service finds itself in serious trouble and in need of urgent restructuring. This conclusion was offered by the Government Accounta... read more
Government Prize Money for Smart Ideas and Technology
While recipients of the Nobel Prize garner media attention for their past achievements, many lesser known scientists, researchers and innovators are quietly receiving million-dollar prizes from the U.S. government in an effort to promote new ideas... read more
How Much Does Obesity Cost the Nation?
It is no coincidence that as the number of overweight Americans has gone up, so too has the nation’s costs for health care, according to researchers. While experts do not solely blame rising obesity rates for skyrocketing medical expenses, the gro... read more
Al Franken’s First Bill: Providing Dogs for Wounded Vets
While spending months fighting post-election legal battles to claim his U.S. Senate seat, Al Franken had plenty of time to work on his legislative agenda. So once Franken was cleared to become the junior senator from Minnesota, he wasted little ti... read more
Bank of America Drastically Cut Small Business Loans after Bailout
According to data compiled by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Bank of America isn’t quite the friend of small business it claims to be. The overwhelming majority of loans made through the Small Business Administration are called ... read more
“High-Frequency” Traders Make Billions Beating Normal Stock Investors to the Punch
Faster than a speeding bullet, the new super traders of Wall Street are today utilizing powerful computers and advanced mathematics to buy, sell and even manipulate stock markets like never before. “High-frequency” trading uses advanced algorithms... read more
Energy Department Accused of Wasting Energy
Officials at the Department of Energy might want to review their mission statement. One of their primary tasks is to be a leader in the efficient use of energy while operating offices and laboratories across the country. But much of the agency has... read more
Navy Developing Secret Retro Turboprop Attack Plane
After spending decades and hundreds of billions of dollars to develop the most sophisticated jet fighters the world has ever seen, the Defense Department has decided to go “back to the future” to do a better job of attacking Taliban and al Qaeda... read more
Executives Gain One-Third of Total U.S. Wages
Executives representing just 6% of the workforce in America receive more than one-third of all wages, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social Security Administration data. Out of the $6.4 trillion in pay distributed in 2007, $2.1 tri... read more
Raise Minimum Wage to $10 an Hour: Jonathan Tasini
On July 24 the federal minimum wage will increase to $7.25 an hour, but this will be no cause for celebration, writes Jonathan Tasini, executive director of the Labor Research Association. For Tasini, the minimum wage is a “scandal” that “masks po... read more
Alaska Natives Gain Billions in No-Bid Contracts
Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) are being accused of exploiting loopholes in federal contracting rules to receive billions of dollars from the federal government, according to lawmakers and federal inspectors. Current regulations allow ANCs to r... read more
Pentagon Uses Stimulus Funds for No-Bid Contracts
Even though President Barack Obama has pledged to end no-bid contracting, the Defense Department is still awarding projects—paid for with stimulus funds—to businesses that haven’t had to compete for the work. The awarding of no-bid work to small c... read more
U.S. Budget Deficit Tops $1 Trillion for First Time
Uncle Sam’s checkbook is seriously out of whack. With still three months to go in the current fiscal year, the federal government has already hit the trillion-dollar deficit mark for the first time ever in a yearly budget. According to figures rel... read more
Texas Border Webcams: $2 Million, 11 Arrests
It was one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the Internet over the past year, with nearly 40 million visitors. But the million-dollar plan to use webcams and “virtual deputies” to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border has proved to be a bust.
W... read more
Aviation Stimulus Dollars Go To Small and Private Airports
Congressman John Murtha’s (D-PA) airport to nowhere isn’t the only small, little-used airport receiving millions in federal tax dollars. Of the more than $1 billion in stimulus funds given to the Federal Aviation Administration, $100 million has g... read more