Posts Tagged ‘waste’

LinkSwarm for Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Two days before Thanksgiving! Here’s a swarm of links from what should be a slow news week:

Spending Lots of Taxpayer Money to Accomplish Nothing

Monday, December 21st, 2009

If there’s a theme for the Obama years, and for the Pelosi/Reid legislation Obama has embraced, it’s that of spending tremendous amounts of taxpayer dollars to accomplish almost nothing. Consider:

What all three have in common?

  • All are hugely expensive. How expensive no one knows, but given the vast increase we’ve seen in the cost of Social Security, Medicare, etc., my guess would be tens of trillions of dollars over the next 30 years.
  • All are exteremly unpopular among the taxpayers who are being asked to foot the bill.
  • All accomplish almost nothing except increase the size of the federal government and channeling money to Obama allies like ACORN and SEIU.

The way things are going, the slaughter of Democratic incumbents in the 2010 election could make 1994 look like a picnic by comparison…

Update:

Greetings Farkers!

&#60Troy McClure&#62Hi, I’m Lawrence Person! You may remember me from such Flamewars as “ObamaCare is all about choice, or rather, taking choices away from American citizens and giving them to government bureaucrats” and “From Iran to Honduras, millions of people around the world long for freedom and democracy. And wherever those seeking freedom can be found, Obama will be there…grinding his bootheel into their face”.&#60&#47Troy McClure&#62

Come in and sit a spell. Have a beer and stretch your feet out to the toasty flamewar goodness. Feel free to buy a book or check out my other, completely non-political blog.

And, above all, Obey the Hypnotoad!

Recessions are for the Little People

Monday, December 14th, 2009

During the recession, government employees have had to make serious cutba–ha, ha, oh sorry, I could even keep a straight face while typing that. They’ve made out like bandits:

  • “Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.”
  • 2008: there was only “one career federal worker making an annual salary of $170,000 or more at the U.S. Department of Transportation when the current recession began. Today, 18 months later, there are more than 1,600 career employees making that much.”
  • “In the first six months of the year, the federal government was adding 10,000 jobs per month, and over the recession had grown the ranks of bureaucrats by 9.8 percent. The private sector, during that same period, shed 7.3 million jobs.”
  • “The $448 billion appropriations bill approved last week by the House contained more than 5,000 earmarks, many of which will ultimately benefit the favored few rather than the suffering many.”

And just think of the additional billions they’ll be able to rake in for cap-and-trade and ObamaCare…

Kentucky’s Tax Dollars At Work

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

From the fine folks over at The Corner comes this wonderful, two-part story of tax dollars at work.

It seems that the Louisville African American Think Tank wanted to put on a two day “urban health summit,” and applied for, and received, a government grant. Except there seems to be a few tiny problems:

  • The “think thank” in question wasn’t tax exempt, having been dissolved by the state in 2005 for failing to file annual reports.
  • The board of the think tank had a, ah, “colorful” history:
    • “Treasurer Theron Dunn has been arrested for theft and burglary.”
    • “Secretary Terell Stoner has two full pages of charges including sexual abuse, armed robbery and assault.”
    • “Yancy Davis, a director, has been arrested for drug violations, carrying a concealed weapon and child abuse.”
    • Think Tank Director Rev. Gerome Sutton was once on the “Louisville’s Most Wanted” list for forging his ex-wife’s signature on her car title and failing to pay more than $30,000 in court-ordered alimony, and was also arrested for allegedly threatening to kill his ex-wife.
  • Best of all: The initial $10,000 check from the state was cashed at a liquor store.

And this was from a state government. Just think: If Rev. Sutton had only applied for some of that sweet stimulus money, he’d still be receiving checks…