NewsTrust - U.S. Budget - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Stimulus for Cotton Candy, Tango and a Fish Orchestra? Wacky, or Actually Worthy?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ProPublica - By Michael Grabell - Nov. 07 (Investigative Report) - Breakfast at Fuddruckers: $19.24. Snow cone and cotton candy machine: $146.89. Six extra preview performances of “Little House on the Prairie – the Musical”: $50,000. Benefit to the economy? According to the recipients of this stimulus money: Priceless.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Stimulus Contracts Go to Companies Under Criminal Investigation

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Michael Grabell - Oct. 26 (Investigative Report) - The Department of Defense awarded nearly $30 million in stimulus contracts to six companies while they were under federal criminal investigation on suspicion of defrauding the government. According to Air Force documents, the companies claimed to be small, minority-owned businesses, which allowed them to gain special preference in bidding for government contracts. But investigators found that they were all part of a larger minority-owned enterprise in Southern California, making them ineligible for the contracts.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Healthcare Fundamentals: Why isn't anyone talking about what's dricing costs?

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

prosperitynow4u.org - By Gordon Townsend - Oct. 09 (News Analysis) - Healthcare reform – the most talked about subject in the media lately - replete with stories of catastrophic illness, death panels, public options, etc. It tough to find any concrete information that will let you make a good decision by wading through the rhetoric. Respond to the current public debate by asking the fundamental questions and not taking throw away statistics and people’s assumptions as genuine – whether they are your representative or your doctor.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average - 9 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The CBO Just Released Its New Health Care Score. Reason for Relief?

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Oct. 07 (News Analysis) - The good news, substantively and politically, is that CBO expects the measure would reduce budget deficits by $81 billion over the next decade and by even larger sums in the following decade, although it won't quantify that amount specifically because estimates are so imperfect that far out.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

US Increasing Personnel in Iraq

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Walter Pincus - Sep. 08 (News) - As the United States withdraws its combat forces from Iraq, the government is hiring more private guards to protect U.S. installations at a cost that could near $1 billion, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

House Leaders Drop Plan To Purchase New Jets

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Anne Flaherty - Aug. 10 (News Report) - It's not unusual for Congress to ignore the Pentagon's budget proposal and add money for certain programs, particularly if the purchase might benefit their constituents. The $636 billion defense spending bill passed last month by a 400-30 vote included money for cargo jets that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said weren't needed and an alternative engine for the next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that the Pentagon said was a waste of money.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Gates Grounds the Airborne White Elephant Laser

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Joe Cirincione - Jul. 17 (News Report) - Under President George Bush, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates resolutely defended every dime of last year's $11 billion budget for anti-missile weapons programs. Now reporting to President Obama, who favors weapons programs that are operationally effective and affordable, he is free to say what military officials have known for years: many of these programs don't work. He has trimmed $1.6 billion from the budget and axed three of the worst projects, infuriating the high priests of the missile defense cargo cult.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Where's My Flying Tank?

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Rachel Morris - Jul. 06 (Special Report) - A quick primer on the problem programs Gates wants to cut and the ones he left intact.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Operation Overrun

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - Jul. 06 (Special Report) - Let's start with the biggest no-brainer of a problem: the Pentagon's mind-boggling budget blowouts. That is, setting aside for a moment the question of which weapons the DOD should or shouldn't buy, how much money does it waste? In 2008, the Pentagon calculated that its existing weapons commitments will ultimately cost the government $1.6 trillion. A big chunk of that total—$296 billion, to be exact—is cost overruns.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Here We Go Again: How to Read Those HELP Numbers

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Jul. 06 (News Analysis) - neither the media--nor progressives--are doing the reform cause a favor by hyping the $600 billion figure. Right now, the committee with the jurisdicton over those other elements--Senate Finance--is busy hacking away at its program to bring the price tag in at under $1 trillion. But to do that, Finance is cutting subsidies and, most likely, coverage. The proper, honest reading of HELP's bill sets out a marker for how big a program has to be: at least $1 trillion and probably a bit more.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Shock and Audit: The Hidden Defense Budget

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Rachel Morris - Jun. 23 (Special Report) - Cost overruns for major weapons programs now total $296 billion. We could never afford this rampant squandering of public money, but now, with the economy in crisis, the need to end the Pentagon's profligacy has become even more urgent.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

WHAT TO MAKE OF PAYGO?

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Tim Fernholz - Jun. 11 (News Analysis) - What's the actual impact of making these congressional rules in to law? Since both rules have emergency waivers (designed for situations, like the current recession, where running a deficit is a good idea, but often abused by congress), Horney says that making the rules into law "doesn't make an enormous amount of difference. If you've got the votes to waive the congressional rules, you've probably got the votes to waive the statutory rule. [But] It heightens the visibility for [and] makes it a little bit harder for members of congress to vote for waiving the statute. The main question is whether that somehow builds more support for living by the pay-go rule. Get people to commit to living by it."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama's Warfare State

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Sherwood Ross - May. 21 (News Analysis) - Although the United States is not in imminent danger of attack from any country, President Barack Obama’s first budget further expands the Pentagon’s already dominant global operations.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Lobbyists Skirt Disclosures on Stimulus Lobbying

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Olga Pierce, Brian Boyer - May. 15 (News Report) - We know that, like any giant pot of government money, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act attracted lobbyists’ interest. Lobbyists have long been required to give Congress quarterly disclosure reports outlining their lobbying efforts. In the latest quarterly reports, no less than 871 lobbyists [2] indicated lobbying on the stimulus. But only 12 of those lobbyists appear in the filings that agencies are now required to post online almost immediately after they speak to a lobbyist

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Social Security in Peril, But Not Crisis

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Tom Jacobs - May. 12 (Special Report) - Miller-McCune writer Tom Jacobs did a three-part series last year that takes an in-depth look at Social Security including a history of the program, what needs fixing and where we go from here.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

President Obama's War Budget: Analyzing the Numbers

Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Jeff Leys - May. 04 (Investigative Report) - At first glance, it is easy to conclude that the proposed 22 percent reduction in war spending from 2008 to 2009 represents a significant shift in war strategy and is indicative of a drawing down of the twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sadly, such a conclusion would be wrong.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama Seeks to Delay Tanker, Cancel Bomber

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Congressional Quarterly - By Josh Rogin - Mar. 10 (News Report) - The White House has given the Pentagon guidance to delay procurement of aerial refueling tankers by five years and cancel plans for a new long-range bomber, according to three sources close to the discussions.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama's timid liberalism

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Michael Lind - Mar. 06 (News Analysis) - You might have thought that the Crash of 2008 would have led Democrats to reconsider this neoliberal approach to providing public goods by private means. But to judge from President Obama's budget, the White House is still living back in the neoliberal era, when the diminutive Milton Friedman cast a giant shadow.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Obama Code

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By George Lakoff - Mar. 02 (News Analysis) - The Obama Code is based on seven deep, insightful, and subtle intellectual moves. What President Obama has been attempting in his speeches is a return to the original frames of the Framers, reconstituting what it means to be an American, to be patriotic, to be a citizen and to share in both the sacrifices and the glories of our country. In seeking "bipartisan" support, he is looking beyond political affiliations to those who share those values on particular issues. In his economic plan, he is attempting to realign our economy with the moral missions of government: protection and empowerment for all.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Weapons programs re-branded as jobs programs

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Real News - By Miriam Pemberton - Feb. 15 (Special Report) - As unemployment in the US rises, old War on Terror appeals to national security are taking a backseat to economic justifications. The US military industry has adjusted to this new reality by crafting its requests for government funding on the basis of its capacity to provide employment. This despite evidence that military spending is one of the least effective means of job creation.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The U.S. Economic Stimulus Plan

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Council on Foreign Relations - By Lee Hudson Teslik - Feb. 10 (Special Report) - Economists disagree on the wisdom of extensive stimulus spending, as well as the particulars of the current U.S. plan. Given the current economic climate, most mainstream economists now say that the potential downsides of collapse are sufficiently grave that large stimulatory expenditures may be necessary. As the global financial and economic crisis has worsened, this viewpoint has gained international popularity. In a December 2008 paper released by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, leading UN economists call for coordinated stimulus packages across the world's leading economies, above and beyond the money already spent to boost credit market liquidity. Two scholars from the conservative Heritage Foundation argue in a December 2008 paper that the best medicine for the U.S. economy would be to reduce overall government spending. CFR Senior Fellow Amity Shlaes adds that governments can throw good money after bad if they seek to stimulate unsustainable businesses. "It can be perverse because you stimulate something [i.e. an industry] that's really pretty weak and should maybe fade," Shlaes told CFR.org. In a December 2008 op-ed, Shlaes also argued that huge public works projects often fail to revive national economies, as evidenced by Japan's experience during the 1990s.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average - 10 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Senate Sheds Education Aid :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Inside Higher Ed - By Doug Lederman - Feb. 07 (News Report) - Hope you haven’t spent that stimulus money yet. A compromise amendment worked out by moderate Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate late Friday slashed billions of dollars that would have flowed to colleges and universities in the Senate’s original version, with the biggest cuts coming in education aid to states and funds to modernize college facilities. To the relief of advocates for students, the compromise legislation sustained $13.9 billion to increase the maximum Pell Grant for needy students, which budget cutters had eyed. College and student lobbyists had worked aggressively late last week as various drafts of the compromise amendment emerged showing Pell funds in and out of the plan, but when Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) revealed the final plan’s contents late Friday evening, Pell was in.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

No Child Left Behind Funding Gets Big Increase in House Stimulus Bill

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Civilrights.org - Feb. 03 (News Report) - But with the national high school graduation rate at 58 percent for Hispanics, 55 percent for African Americans, and only 51 percent for Native Americans, compared to a national average for all students of 71 percent, education advocates are concerned that the stimulus bill doesn't specifically direct money toward addressing the nation's dropout crisis or the unique learning needs of students who do not speak English as their primary language.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Five Alternative Bailout Plans

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - Sep. 29 (News Analysis) - Many on Capitol Hill--especially Democrats--are buying the general premise of the White House plan but insisting on lipstick-on-a-pig modifications involving CEO compensation, taxpayer protection, and oversight and transparency. But are there other approaches to the problem besides putting the Treasury in charge of a $700 billion fire sale? Yup.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Whoppers of 2008

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Lori Robertson - Sep. 25 (Special Report) - McCain has made multiple false representations of Obama's tax proposals. Obama has made false claims about McCain's stance on Social Security. Both McCain and Obama have traded some whoppers about their energy policies, about Iraq, and about Iran, and about supporting troops.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average - 9 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer