Where is the Money Going?
Replace Corporate Income Tax with VAT: Fritz Hollings
Former U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings of South Carolina has taken exception with the Senate’s recent decision to reject the imposition of a valued added tax (VAT). Hollings, a conservative Democrat, believes a VAT should be used to replace the corp... read more
U.S. Spent $5.6 Billion Last Year Treating Veterans with Mental Disabilities
Caring for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses is costing the federal government billions of dollars a year, and will continue to do so for years to come. According to an analysis of Department ... read more
Obama Pentagon Plans to Cut Military Outsourcing to Pre-Bush Levels
The boom times for military contractors may be coming to an end if the Obama administration follows through on plans to cut back on outsourcing defense jobs to the private sector. During the previous decade, the Department of Defense, under Presid... read more
Navy Looks for Ships That Require Fewer Sailors and More Computers
What once required hundreds of sailors may soon need only dozens as the U.S. Navy moves to a new fleet of high-tech, innovative coastal vessels known as littoral ships. Naval commanders are deciding between two different designs of littorals—one b... read more
Big Banks Vow to Fight Federal Reserve Loan Disclosures
Despite losing two court decisions, banks have decided to continue the fight against the media publishing the names of institutions bailed out by the Federal Reserve during the worst of the financial crisis in 2008.
The Clearing House Payment ... read more
IRS Shifted $63 Million Away from Unemployment Benefits
Accounting errors by the IRS over a five-year period cost the federal government $63 million in unemployment insurance funds, according to a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The foul-up began after an audit ... read more
IRS Audits of Large Corporations Decline to New Low
If the nation’s largest corporations were inclined to fudge their tax returns, they would face pretty good odds (about 3-to-1) of getting away with it, since the IRS is now spending less time auditing such businesses. Syracuse University’s Transac... read more
Government Accused of Giving Small Business Contracts to Fortune 500 Companies
The General Services Administration is in trouble with the American Small Business League (ASBL), which is alleging in a lawsuit that federal contracts intended for small companies are being awarded to large corporations. ASBL, which represents 10... read more
Lockheed and Boeing Wary of Obama’s Encouragement of Newer Companies for NASA’s Space Taxi
President Barack Obama’s plan to revamp the nation’s space program is not sitting well with two of NASA’s biggest aerospace contractors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Under the new vision put forth by Obama, NASA would scrap its return to the moon a... read more
Investors Suing Banks? No Contest…Banks Win
What do Oppenheimer & Co., Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Fremont General Corp., Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, State Street Corp. and Bank United Corp. all have in common? In addition to being financial institutions, they’ve each been sued f... read more
IRS Officers Dealing with Complex Cases Don’t Have Enough Work
Four years ago the IRS created a special kind of agent to handle complicated collections cases. But these senior revenue officers are often not given any work assignments, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The IG’... read more
Almost Half of Americans Won’t Owe Federal Income Taxes This Year
Paying Uncle Sam on April 15 will not be a concern this year for nearly half of all Americans. The Tax Policy Center estimates 47% will not have to pay federal income taxes for 2009, due to low incomes or various tax breaks enacted in recent years... read more
Why Does it Take 10 Years to Close the Medicare Drug “Doughnut Hole”?
Congress has provided relief to millions of Medicare recipients struggling to pay for their prescription drugs, but the help won’t fully kick in for almost a decade.
The so-called “doughnut hole” refers to drug costs that are more than $2,830 ... read more
Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank Weasel into Payday Loan Business
Having been banned by the federal government from partnering with payday lenders, some large national banks are now directly making these kinds of high-interest loans to consumers—and avoiding restrictions that limit how much they can charge.
... read more
Wall Street Bailout Cost Reaches $4.6 Trillion; Most from Federal Reserve Loans
Discussions of Washington’s bailout of Wall Street have mostly focused on what the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has spent: $410 billion. But the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) claims the real total of the federal rescue amounts to th... read more
As Rates Jump, WellPoint Rewards CEO with $13 Million Pay Package
Following the news that health insurer WellPoint’s California subsidiary Anthem decided to increase rates for individual policyholders by as much as 39%, it’s now come out that WellPoint gave its top executive, Angela Braly, a 51% boost in compens... read more