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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.

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Why Keep Geithner?

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

MSNBC - By Dylan Ratigan - Nov. 02 (News Analysis) - A year ago it was revealed to the American people that our banking system was a legalized Ponzi scheme in which bank and insurance CEOs paid themselves billions of dollars in personal compensation to lend and insure assets with money they didn't have

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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.

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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.

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Analysis Sees Baucus Bill Meeting Obama’s Cost and Deficit Targets

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

New York Times - By David M. Herszenhorn, Robert Pear - Oct. 07 (News Report) - The cost analysis is in: the Senate Finance Committee’s health care legislation, as amended during seven days of debate, would cost a projected $829 billion over 10 years, up from $774 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And it would reduce the future federal deficit by $81 billion, up from an earlier projected deficit reduction of $49 billion. That would seem to be good news for Democrats and the White House. President Obama has insisted that the health care bill not add to the deficit and that the total price tag be held to about $900 billion. The Finance Committee chairman, Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, was on the Senate floor almost immediately, hailing the results. In its analysis, the budget office found that by 2019 the bill would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 29 million, leaving about 25 million people uninsured — of whom one-third would be illegal immigrants. This means that the amended bill would cover roughly the same number of people over 10 years as was initially projected despite numerous changes, including some softening of penalties for people who fail to obtain health insurance as required under the legislation. In all, the proportion of Americans with health insurance is expected to rise to 94 percent from 83 percent, the budget office said in its report.

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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.

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Populist Vein Resurfaces in Protests

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Gerald F. Seib - Sep. 15 (News Analysis) - ea Party Patriots and like-minded brethren represent the latest resurfacing of a vein that has always been there and that simply goes below ground from time to time. This vein is populist and antiestablishment; it alternates between suspicion of government in general, and anger at the idea that government seems to be doing more to help fat cats or the other guy. In some fashion or another, it has been around since the time George Washington quelled the Whiskey Rebellion.

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Good Billions After Bad

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Vanity Fair - By Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - As the Bush administration waned, the Treasury shoveled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in tarp funds into the financial system—without restrictions, accountability, or even common sense. The authors reveal how much of it ended up in the wrong hands, doing the opposite of what was needed.

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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.

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Biden ignores problems with stimulus

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Brett J. Blackledge - Sep. 04 (News Analysis) - ... his glowing assessment overlooks many of the program's problems, including delays in releasing money, questionable spending priorities and project picks that are under investigation.

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Federal Government Needs Massive Hiring Binge, Study Finds

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Steve Vogel - Sep. 03 (News Report) - The numbers also reflect the Obama administration's intent to take on several enormous challenges, including the repair of the financial sector, fighting two wars, and addressing climate change. "It has to win the war for talent in order to win theThe federal government needs to hire more than 270,000 workers for "mission-critical" jobs over the next three years, a surge prompted in part by the large number of baby-boomer federal workers reaching retirement age, according to the results of a government-wide survey being released Thursday.

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Privatized welfare plan price swells ::

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Aug. 22 (News Report) - Indiana will spend nearly $180 million more than it initially planned to privatize and automate many of its welfare functions just two years into a closely watched 10-year deal that is one of the most lucrative contracts in state history. The cost of the $1.16 billion contract Gov. Mitch Daniels signed in late 2006 has risen 15 percent, to $1.34 billion, under changes made to the agreement with a group led by Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp.

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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.

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Pinched States Wrestle With More Cuts

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Leslie Eaton - Jul. 30 (News Report) - Just a few weeks after many states struggled to balance their budgets for the new fiscal year, plunging tax revenues are forcing more cuts.

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TARP watchdog cites lack of transparency in Obama administration

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Tom Hamburger, Peter Nicholas - Jul. 23 (News Report) - As the watchdog of the government's massive bailout of the financial sector, Neil M. Barofsky had a simple question: What had the nation's banks done with all their bailout money?

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Governors on the Front Lines of Battle With a Struggling Economy

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Dan Balz - Jul. 19 (News Report) - These are grim days for governors. Here's one example: Offered an invitation to spend a weekend on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico at the annual meeting of the National Governors Association, more than half the nation's governors politely declined. Budget issues have kept some governors at home, including the chairman of the NGA, Pennsylvania's Edward G. Rendell (D). He decided it wasn't wise to leave his state on the first "payless payday" for state workers. "Not a very good move for me to go down to Biloxi," he said by telephone. The governor of the hardest-hit state, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), is also a no-show because he is struggling with his legislature to close a $26 billion budget deficit. Legislative leaders reported Saturday that after two weeks of hard negotiations, they were moving toward a solution. Meanwhile, the state has been issuing IOUs in lieu of payment.

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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.

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Budget Blow for Health Plan

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

Wall Street Journal - By Greg Hitt - Jul. 17 (News Report) - Congress's chief budget scorekeeper cast a new cloud over Democratic efforts to overhaul the nation's health-care system, telling lawmakers Thursday that the main proposals being considered would fail to contain costs -- one of the primary goals -- and could actually worsen the problem of rapidly escalating medical spending.

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Budget umpire: Healthcare bills would raise costs

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

Associated Press - Jul. 17 (News Report) - Democrats' healthcare bills won't meet President Barack Obama's goal of slowing the ruinous rise of medical costs, Congress' budget umpire warned today, giving weight to critics who say the legislation could break the bank.

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Transportation Stimulus Gives Short Shrift to Cities

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Michael Cooper, Griff Palmer - Jul. 09 (Special Report) - A New York Times analysis of 5,274 projects found that metropolitan areas were getting less than half of the federal transportation stimulus money.

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In Retooled Health-Care System, Who Will Set Limits?

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Alec MacGillis - Jul. 08 (News Analysis) - In U.S. "rationing" remains a dirty word, but who will say "no" remains the ultimate question.How will tough decisions be made about what to spend money on? In a country where "rationing" is a dirty word, who will say no? The question permeates all levels of medicine: the use of tests that many argue are unnecessary (U.S. doctors order five times as many MRIs as doctors do in Germany); how early to intervene with common conditions such as heart disease and prostate cancer; how aggressively to treat patients nearing their life's end.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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State budgets in crisis: Happy new year

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Jul. 04 (News Analysis) - Every state but two, commodity-rich North Dakota and Montana, has faced a deficit this year. One legislator in New Jersey described her state as “functionally bankrupt”. More than 5,000 Illinoisans gathered on June 23rd to protest against cuts to social services, with a child placed in a coffin for dramatic effect. In California, which faces a $24 billion gap, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor, sent the leader of the state Senate a metallic pair of bull testicles to urge him to cut spending.

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