Where is the Money Going?
One Quarter of African-Americans and Latinos Live in Poverty
More than one in four African-Americans and Hispanics lived in poverty during 2010 in the United States, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Department of Health and Human Services defines poverty as $22,350 annual inc... read more
Student Loan Default Rate Highest in 14 Years
College graduates are struggling the most since the 1990s to keep up with their student loan payments, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Education.
Among student borrowers, 8.8% defaulted last year on their loans, up from 7% ... read more
85% of Federal Employees Don’t Work in Washington D.C.
Slashing trillions of dollars out of the federal budget, which many lawmakers are seeking, will help reduce the deficit. But it could also have a negative impact on small communities across the United States.
Cutting the budget means shrinki... read more
Video Game Industry Big Winner When It Comes to Tax Breaks
While earning billions of dollars in revenues, America’s video game industry has enjoyed a variety of tax breaks from the U.S. government. Electronic Arts, for example, earned $1.2 billion in global profits over the past five years, but only paid ... read more
Justice Dept. Spends $3 million a Year Defending Lawsuits against EPA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was sued an average of more than 100 times a year over the past two decades, according to a review of the agency’s legal history by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
GAO found that abo... read more
Pentagon Still Insists on Buying Russian Helicopters
At first the Department of Defense was justifying its decision to buy helicopters from Russia because the immediacy of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan demanded the use of non-competitive contracts to get the necessary equipment into the hands of... read more
Should Restaurants be Allowed to Accept Food Stamps?
With food-stamp benefits more than doubling in recent years, the restaurant industry has decided it wants in on the action.
Federal law currently prohibits restaurants from accepting food stamps, although exceptions are allowed for the disab... read more
Social Security Has Paid Millions of Dollars to 1,760 Dead People Since 2008
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has spent tens of millions of dollars paying beneficiaries after they’ve died, some for as long as decades.
An audit by the agency’s inspector general found that since 2008 $40.3 million was paid to m... read more
Worst Examples of Taxpayer Money Wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan
When the U.S. government wasted somewhere between $30 billion and $60 billion on contracts for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, it did so in a variety of ways.
For example, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) in 2005 hired Supreme Foodservice of ... read more
Postal Service on Verge of Default
The dire warnings about the financial state of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) may soon become dire reality unless Congress can agree to new financing for the cash-strapped agency.
In what has become an annual refrain, Postmaster General Patric... read more
Illegal Workers Received $4 Billion in Refundable Tax Credits Last Year
Illegal immigrants earned $4.2 billion in refundable Additional Child Tax Credits (ACTC) from the IRS in 2010, despite the fact that federal law prohibits unauthorized workers from taking advantage of other tax breaks.
The Treasury Inspector G... read more
Solar Company with $535 Million in Federal Loan Guarantees Declares Bankruptcy
It was heralded as the first beneficiary of the Obama administration’s energy loan guarantee program, and it was supposed to demonstrate how green technologies and job creation could go hand-in-hand. But instead of being a shining beacon for the... read more
Pentagon Pays $720 Million for Storage Containers…in Late Fees
The Department of Defense managed to consume nearly three quarters of a billion dollars by having to pay late fees on rented shipping containers used for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as for other purposes.
After reviewing federa... read more
Mortgage Applications Hit 15-Year Low
News from the housing market is still grim, as mortgage applications last week hit a 15-year low.
The mortgage application rate dropped 5.7%, down to the lowest level since December 1996.
Also, re-sales of homes in 2011 may be the worst ... read more
VA Awards New Contract for Useless Drug
On August 2 researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs published a paper that concluded the anti-psychotic drug, risperidone, was no more effective than a placebo when it came to helping veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress dis... read more
Total U.S. Cost of Military Action in Libya Confirmed at 3 Days Worth of Afghanistan War
By war-on-terror standards, the U.S. involvement in Libya was a real bargain, according to new figures released by the Department of Defense.
After months of helping rebels take down Muammar Gaddafi, the U.S. has wound up paying just under $... read more