Where is the Money Going?
IRS Audit Rate for Millionaires Plunges
So much for the Internal Revenue Service getting tough with the wealthy. Last year, the IRS proudly proclaimed that it had substantially increased the number of audits in 2007 for those Americans earning a million dollars or more a year. But when ... read more
Surprise! IRS Wasting Taxpayer Money
A recent report by the Department of Treasury Inspector General determined that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been ineffectively controlling instances of waste, fraud, and abuse relating to the use of employee telephone calling cards. Thi... read more
Lobbyists in the Obama Administration
Campaigning in 2007, Barack Obama declared that “when I am president, [lobbyists] won’t find a job in my White House. Easier said than done. National Journal Magazine checked the names of 267 Obama senior appointees and nominees against the list o... read more
Web Site Helps Rate Possible Stimulus Projects
StimulusWatch.org presents “shovel-ready” projects around the United States and allows web visitors to vote on which ones are worth funding. The list was compiled by The United States Conference of Mayors, but anyone can vote. According to site us... read more
Class Warfare Nothing New in America: Jim Hightower
One of the ways that Republicans have been attacking President Obama’s budget is by saying that it represents “class warfare.” Republican columnist David Brooks wrote that, according to Obama, “no new burdens will fall on 95 percent of the America... read more
Where Did AIG Taxpayer Bailout Money Go?
Sunday’s news that the American International Group (AIG) was paying out $165 million in executive bonuses elicited universal outrage from politicians and media commentators. The story garnered so much attention that it overwhelmed a much bigger b... read more
Obama’s “Robin Hood” Budget
Critics are calling President Obama’s new tax policies “class warfare” and even “socialism.” But his supporters look at it differently: they refer to it as a “Robin Hood budget.” There is no question that Obama is increasing spending for the poor,... read more
Can U.S. Still Afford 1,000 Overseas Military Bases?
As Americans face an economic crisis that is worsening by the day, it is time to ask whether U.S. taxpayers can afford to maintain the estimated 1,000 overseas military bases that the nation continues to operate.
The Pentagon officially report... read more
Army Charity Hoarding Millions
The Army Emergency Relief (AER) program was founded in 1942 as a non-profit organization entwined with the U.S. Army to help soldiers and their families in need. Traditionally uncontroversial, AER hands out loans, grants and scholarships, and help... read more
Bush-Obama Rescue Plan=Herbert Hoover II: Ismael Hossein-zadeh
Drake University economics professor Ismael Hossein-zadeh argues that the Bush/Obama administrations’ response to the financial meltdown is exactly the same as the one the administration of Herbert Hoover tried at the beginning of the Great Depres... read more
Grading the Energy Stimulus: A to F
Earlier this week, President Obama signed into law the $787 billion economic stimulus package. Of this sum, more than $80 billion is being directed to start a new, national clean energy infrastructure. Many are acclaiming this clean energy investm... read more
Infrastructure Job Plan Skewed Towards States with Low Unemployment
The stimulus bill allocates $98.3 billion for projects related to transportation and infrastructure. These expenditures are expected to generate large numbers of jobs. However, states with low unemployment are getting more money per capita unemplo... read more
Republican Districts Gain More Jobs from Stimulus than Democratic Ones
According to estimates released by the White House, each of the 435 Congressional districts in the United States will gain between 6,000 and 11,000 jobs as a result of the just passed stimulus bill. However, strange as it may seem, Republican dist... read more
What’s in the Stimulus Bill?: Aid to the Economically Stressed
During the presidential contest between Barack Obama and John McCain, there was lots and lots of talk about helping the middle-class, but we didn’t hear much about the 38 million Americans who are living below the poverty line. That’s because lowe... read more
What’s in the Stimulus Bill?: The $5 Billion Sentence
One sentence in the new stimulus bill (aka the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009”) reads, “For an additional amount for ‘Defense Environmental Cleanup,’ $5,127,000,000.” Five billion dollars is a lot of money to spend without explain... read more
What’s in the Stimulus Bill?: Education
One of the biggest winners in the new stimulus package is the field of education. To begin with, in the bill’s section on aid to state and local government, at least $43.8 billion is allocated to reverse cutbacks and layoffs that have been caused ... read more