Radio America Online News Bureau

spending

The Wasteful Spending Inside the Coronavirus Relief Bill

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The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package Wednesday night and the House is expected to follow suit as soon as Friday. But in addition to the critical relief for families and businesses is a lot of spending that hardly seems relevant to the crisis at hand.

For example, the legislation allots $250 million for the IRS, $350 for migration and refugee assistance, $75 million for NPR and PBS, $25 million for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and many others.

So how did this happen and what was happening behind the scenes even as the Senate floor debate was under way? How does House Speaker Nancy Pelosi justify these spending demands from the GOP-led Senate? And how should a fiscally conservative member approach a bill like this when other provisions need to be approved immediately?

We discuss these and other questions with Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of OpentheBooks.com.

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RBG & ERA, Bernie & Big Spending, Steyer & the Minimum Wage

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Listen to “RBG & ERA, Bernie & Big Spending, Steyer & the Minimum Wage” on Spreaker.

It’s New Hampshire primary day! Get prepared with your Tuesday installment of the Three Martini Lunch. Join Jim and Greg as they applaud Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for telling her fellow supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment that the effort died in 1982 and they need to start over again if they want to see it succeed. They also cringe as CNBC reminds us that Bernie Sanders would more than double federal spending every year due to his big government plans for health care, education, climate change and more. Meanwhile, Jim discusses the calculation from many on the right calculation that a Sanders nomination means an easy win for President Trump. And they roll their eyes as Tom Steyer tries to one-up the Democratic field by calling for a $22-per-hour minimum wage.

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‘Neither Side is Interested in Spending Restraint’

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As Congress prepares to pass another $1.4 trillion in government spending and President Trump prepares to sign it, why are both parties abdicating responsibility for fiscal stewardship?

The House votes on Tuesday enjoyed support from dozens of GOP members.

Openthebooks.com CEO Adam Andrzejewski says Democrats are open about wanting to spend more and more money and many Republicans often end up being hypocrites who run on fiscal conservatism but vote for bloated appropriations packages like this one.

Andrzejewski details how bad our deficit spending is right now, how soon the U.S. may have to pay the piper at this rate, and what can be done to address the problem.

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Sen. Rand Paul Talks Spending Bill, Afghanistan, Impeachment

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Listen to “Sen. Rand Paul Talks Spending Bill, Afghanistan, Impeachment” on Spreaker.

Sen. Rand Paul is not holding back his disgust for the bloated spending contained in the bills to fund the federal government through September 2020.

“The nicest thing I can say about them would be they’re an abomination,” laughed Paul. “They’re terrible. People who vote for this are not fiscally conservative. There’s nothing conservative about this.”

In the podcast, Paul also explains why a majority of Republicans are uninterested in fiscal discipline along with the vast majority of Democrats.

Sen. Paul also reacts to the Washington Post reports revealing that the Bush and Obama administrations really didn’t know what to do in Afghanistan and both actively deceived the American people about progress that wasn’t really happening. What policy does Paul think would make the most sense and prevent Afghanistan from breeding more terrorist attacks.

And listen as Sen. Paul offers his preview of the impeachment trial headed to the U.S. Senate come January.

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Congress Kicks Spending Can Down the Road Again

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While the impeachment hearings attracted most of the news coverage on Capitol Hill this week, both the House and Senate agreed to a continuing resolution to keep the government funded until December 20.

But while shutdown theater was avoided for another month, Congress is yet again failing to go through an orderly appropriations process, by which congressional committees go line by line through spending bills for each department of government.

In recent years, regardless of which party controls the House and Senate, members have funded the government through continuing resolutions that temporarily keep spending levels intact or by voting on giant take-it-or-leave-it omnibus bills that give members no chance to make changes.  The omnibus bills invariably result in higher spending.

Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar says too often the Speaker of the House, whether Republican or Democrat, unilaterally decides what federal spending is going to look like.

“We have put way too much power into the hands of the speakers.  We need to have a process that’s generated from the members from their different committees.  The chairmen should be picked by members of the committees so they are beholden to the members, not beholden to leadership,” said Gosar, a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

On Thursday, before approving the continuing resolution, the U.S. Senate voted to table, or delay, Sen. Rand Paul’s push for the “Penny Plan,” which calls for eliminating one penny of each dollar in federal spending.  More than half of Senate Republicans voted to put off consideration of the plan.

Gosar is not surprised.

“A lot is said when your leader actually says, ‘Nobody loses office by spending money,'” said Gosar, apparently referring to Senate Majority Leader Mich McConnell.  “It shows people are not serious about the process here.”

Listen to the full podcast to hear more of Gosar’s ideas for returning to more responsible spending.  He also explains why he believed Republicans lost the majority in the House of Representatives because of their unfulfilled promises and not because of President Trump.

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The Dems’ Other Target: Alaska Governor Addresses Recall Effort

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While virtually all of the political oxygen is being consumed by the impeachment hearings in Washington, Democrats are looking to remove another Republican executive as well.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy won the Alaska governor’s race in 2018, promising to restore fiscal order in the state. Upon entering office in December of last year, he immediately began cutting spending. The cuts included reductions to the University of Alaska system and Medicaid payments among many other areas. By the end of February, a recall effort was already underway.

“We put in some pretty stiff reductions. And, really, there were reductions across the board and they hit a lot of programs.

“They hit programs that touched upon debt reimbursement for municipalities, university, and hit some of our vulnerable populations – homelessness and some of our seniors,” said Dunleavy.

But he says aggressive action had to be taken. Without it, Alaska would be in difficult financial straits.

“We would have gone through our savings this year. We’d have no savings left and we’d be staring at some pretty stiff, draconian taxes,” said Dunleavy.

Recall supporters gathered more than 49,000 signatures but state officials rejected the premise for it. That ruling is now being challenged in court.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Gov. Dunleavy’s reaction to the recall and his analysis of why cutting spending draws such fierce opposition in both parties – whether in Alaska or in Washington.

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Sanford Ends Campaign, Fight for Fiscal Sanity Continues

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Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford ended his Republican presidential bid this week but he is more determined than ever to warn the nation of impending financial disaster.

Sanford challenged President Trump in the GOP presidential primary knowing full well his odds of winning were very low.  But he launched the bid anyway, seeing it as an opportunity to highlight the fiscal cliff our nation seems determined to fly off of.

So why is Sanford ending the campaign?

“All the oxygen was being sucked out of the room by impeachment, said Sanford, in an interview Radio America’s Greg Corombos.  “I’m not into wasting my time or anybody else’s.  It was a long shot.”

But Sanford still plans to play a leading role in getting America to pay attention to the nation’s debt and spending problems.  It comes at a time when the U.S. is running deficits nearing a trillion dollars under a Republican president.  Most Democrats running for president would greatly expand the role of government and the amount of money to be spent.

And don’t even get him started on plans for government-run health care.

“It’s financial insanity.  This is why I thought it was so important to try to raise my hand and say, ‘I can’t do this. I know I’m not going to become president but can we at least have a conversation about the fact that we’re literally walking off the plank financially?'” said Sanford.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Sanford explain what awaits younger generations if Washington doesn’t chart a different course, what approach is doable and would actually work, and what it will take for lawmakers to take the tough votes to rein in spending.

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Tracking Your Tax Dollars

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Over the first ten months of Fiscal Year 2019, the United States is running it’s largest deficit in history. Fiscal restraint was laughed out of Washington by both parties a long time ago, but what exactly is happening with your tax dollars?

OpentheBooks.com recently studied where nearly $170 billion from the Small Business Administration went over a five-year span.

In this podcast, OpentheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski details the questionable recipients of much of this money and how little of it went to mom and pop business owners struggling to survive.  But he also discusses one way in which the federal government is starting to crack down on spending.

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New Budget Deal Means Even More Debt

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Eager to avoid a debt ceiling showdown, the Treasury Department and congressional Democrats appear to be on the brink of a budget agreement that could saddle taxpayers with an additional $2 trillion in debt over the next decade.

According to reports, the agreement runs through July 31, 2021.  It would effectively end all remaining elements of the 2011 Budget Control Act known as sequester, while adding $350 billion in new spending in exchange for about $75 billion in offsets.

If that seems lopsided in favor of more spending, that’s because it is.  But National Taxpayers Union President Pete Sepp says it’s even worse than it looks.

“The things is there are ripple effects past two years.  If you do a decade-long total, you’re talking about something closer to $2 trillion of additional spending permitted by this deal,” said Sepp.

Sepp also points out that a lot of new spending never goes away.

“Many of the spending increases called for will be baked into future budgets going down the line even if they try to re-establish the debt ceiling a couple of years from now.  So this is a real problem for taxpayers and, unfortunately, it represents the final retreat from the Budget Control Act of 2011, which established that sequester process,” said Sepp.

National Taxpayers Union research shows the sequester process saved the average American household roughly $7,400 by 2017.  Sepp says removing those restraints is nothing more than a massive tax hike on future generations and the future is coming sooner than wee realize.

“Deficit spending is really just tax increases on a future type of taxpayer: unborn taxpayers, or young taxpayers, even taxpayers who are currently filing their taxes down the line would face higher taxes to service all of these debts,” said Sepp.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Sepp respond to suggestions that sequestration cuts were “mindless and irresponsible.”  He also explains why spending “offsets” are often a mirage, why the Trump administration isn’t demanding more fiscal restraint, and why so few people seem to care about the mounting debt.

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Dems, Many GOP Reject Spending Cut Plan

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The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly rejected Sen. Rand Paul’s plan to cut spending by two percent per year over five years, with all Democrats present opposing the plan and a majority of Republicans in the chamber voting against it.

Early in the week, the Senate defeated a procedural motion on the so-called Pennies Plan, 69-22.  All 43 Democrats present in the chamber opposed the plan.  Among Republicans, 26 voted against the bill while 22 supported it.  The plan would make an exception for Social Security expenditures.  It also calls for making the Trump tax cuts permanent and expanding access to Health Savings Accounts.

OpentheBooks.com CEO Adam Andrzejewski is dismayed that a Republican-controlled Senate could not advance the Paul legislation, noting that cutting two cents on the dollar is far more modest than the five cents per dollar that President Trump advocates.

Andrzejewski says every penny that the government spends has a constituency and supportive lawmakers who will fight vigorously to save it.  But with the nation now more than $22 trillion in debt, the current pace of deficit spending cannot be sustained, especially with the bankruptcy of Medicare and Social Security inching ever closer.

So where could we actually start to cut costs?

“Grant making in the federal agencies amounts to over $600 billion and it’s a target-rich environment.  To put that amount of money in perspective, that’s nearly as much money at the Department of Defense on our military budget every single year,” said Andrzejewski.

And while some grants are vital, Andrzejewski says millions are wasted on frivolous projects like one million dollars to Cornell University to find out where it hurts most to get stung by a bee or another million for NASA to address religious concerns if we discover extra-terrestrial life.

Listen to the full podcast to hear more of Andrzejewski’s ideas for addressing bloated spending, including how much can be saved in Medicare and Social Security just by keeping track of who is dead.

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