Obama promised change, so redo federal spending
Struggling corporations bankroll politicians
| The system works great for business big enough to swamp elected representatives with contributions. But it sticks the taxpayer with a multi-trillion dollar bill. A better way is geonomics: forget taxing then subsidizing and instead collect and disburse the value of sites and resources to the entire citizenry. With their shares, business could bail themselves out, should they find it worth their while. We trim and blend two 2008 articles on Dec 12, the first from the Center for Responsive Politics and the second from Taxpayers for Common Sense, their newsletter The WasteBasket: A Bulletin on Wasteful Government Spending, Volume XIII No. 50. |
by CRP and by TCS
- CRP: Struggling Industries Still Found Funds to Sponsor Political Fun
Weeks before they turned to the federal government for rescue, companies such as AIG, Ford, Citigroup, and Freddie Mac were among the biggest sponsors of the summertime political conventions that nominated Barack Obama and John McCain for president.
- House Members Who Approved Auto Bailout Got More Campaign Fuel From Industry; Union Money Aligned with Senate Vote
The 237 members of the House of Representatives who supported infusing American automakers with $14 billion in emergency funds had received an average of $87,063.44, from auto dealers, automakers, and auto unions since 1989, while the 170 who voted against the bill received $80,756.80. In the Senate, the main hang-up was over how and when to cut unionized workers' pay. Senators who supported the bailout, which was backed by the United Auto Workers union, received nearly 14 times more money from the union, on average, in the last 20 years than those who voted against it--$21,671.29 compared to $1,600.
- City and State Governments Invest Money on Capitol Hill
Although local and state governments usually send lobbyists to Capitol Hill on their behalf, mayors and governors from across the nation have been meeting personally in the last week with President-elect Barack Obama and Congress to deliver their economic wish lists. Despite the money crunch, this year city, state and municipal governments are on track to spend more on federal lobbying than they have in the last two years.
TCS: The Changes We Need
President-elect Obama has promised to go through the budget line by line. Here are a few of the many lines he should consider:
- Department of Defense
DOD's budget, which contains close to half of all discretionary spending, is a critical place to start: The multi-billion weapons programs that are over budget and behind schedule; Repeated failure to pass a Congressionally-mandated audit; Increasing reliance on contractors without attendant contract oversight capacity; And an inability to establish realistic cost estimates or control swelling costs before programs advance too far to turn back.
- Department of Homeland Security
Where to begin? The Coast Guard's Deepwater ship scandals, FEMA's trailer trash, or physical and virtual fences along our southern border that do nothing but consume money -- these are just the greatest hits in DHS' catalog of sad songs.
- Department of Energy
DOE's Loan Guarantee Program is currently slated to dole out $38.5 billion in loan guarantees to high risk projects like nuclear reactors. The Congressional Budget Office found nuclear loan guarantees have a 50% default rate and GAO has warned DOE is not prepared to administer the multi-billion dollar program.
It's also time for DOE to put the final stake in its international initiative to expand nuclear power and commercially reprocess nuclear waste. Known as Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) the program began in 2006 and has continuously been riddled with controversy for its high costs and sketchy details. The National Academy of Sciences has estimated that reprocessing existing domestic nuclear waste could cost more than $100 billion dollars.
- Department of Agriculture
Another cornucopia of targets for reform: A crop insurance program that costs more than $3 for every dollar in benefits delivered, a timber program that has spent a billion dollars building roads for private logging companies, or a subsidy program that paid $49 million to ineligible farmers are just a few wasteful abuses that come to mind.
- Department of Interior
Staff at Interior's Minerals Management Service was found to be literally in bed with the industries it regulates, and the agency continues to prop up the profits of oil and gas companies at the expense of taxpayers. DOI should put the brakes on the Royalty-in-Kind program, heed the advice of GAO and conduct an independent review of the royalty collection system, and increase audits and accountability of the oil and gas industry.
- Department of Transportation
DOT's Highway Trust Fund (HTF) has been on the verge of bankruptcy for years. Recently, Congress took $8 billion from the Treasury to back-fill the HTF's budgetary hole. This was no more than a patch that will add to federal deficits.
Unfortunately, this represents just the tip of the waste iceberg. There are a lot more areas that need to be pared back or cut outright. Considering the nation is staring a more than $1 trillion deficit in the face and the government is spending cash almost as fast as we can print it, every budget cut helps.
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Also see: Fund the US or fund us?
U.S. Election Will Cost $5.3 Billion, Center Predicts
"Rent-seeking" is formal jargon for corporate welfare |
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