From the Heritage Foundation: The Obama Administration has been knee-deep in scandal after green energy “model” Solyndra went bankrupt less than two years after receiving a $500 million loan guarantee from the federal government. Now, they are up against another controversy. Days before a recent deadline, the Department of Energy brazenly approved two additional loans [...]
Government Assisted Wireless Phones: What would Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison say?
September 30, 2011 By
Six days a week my wife goes to the front door to get the mail. (I’m not sure why its six days a week, why isn’t it three, five or seven?) Anyway, most days she just looks through the mail and then tosses it in the trash in the kitchen. I take it out to [...]
Unrestrained Government Spending, Debt and Taxes (Part 2): It’s at all Levels of Government
September 30, 2011 By
The Problem Exists in Virtually Every State, County, City, and School District Enormous deficits and debt are not confined to the federal government. State and local governments are accruing unsustainable debt as well. In Connecticut, the national state debt reached $417 billion in 2008. Illinois is currently looking at an $11 billion to $12 billion [...]
State, local politicians must stop deceiving the people, workers and themselves about pension crisis
September 30, 2011 By
From the Franklin Center: When even the most fiscally responsible governor of a state with the lowest hidden pension debt per household doesn’t know how bad it really is, the time has come to force honesty on all state and local governments. Dishonest accounting has taxpayers on the hook for trillions of dollars no matter [...]
17.4% of Illinois general fund goes to pension costs, report says
September 29, 2011 By
From Pension & Investments: Pension contributions and debt service comprise 17.4% of Illinois’ $33.6 billion general fund budget in fiscal year 2012, according to a report released Monday by the Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability at the Civic Federation. The state will pay $4.2 billion in pension contributions in fiscal year 2012 and $1.6 billion [...]
Federal retirement plans almost as costly as Social Security
September 29, 2011 By
From the USA Today: Retirement programs for former federal workers — civilian and military — are growing so fast they now face a multitrillion-dollar shortfall nearly as big as Social Security’s, a USA TODAY analysis shows. The federal government hasn’t set aside money or created a revenue source similar to Social Security’s payroll tax to [...]
Letters to Barack: Big Al
September 29, 2011 By
Dear Barack, I was reading that, in the tradition of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, the CEO and the CFO of your Solyndra pet project have “taken the Fifth.” Gee, whiz, that seems rather sinister for the centerpiece of your “Green Jobs” initiative. Are they afraid that, if they talk, they’ll be deported back to [...]
Unrestrained Government Spending, Debt and Taxes: Introduction
September 29, 2011 By
An FEN Position Paper In fiscal year 2009, the federal government incurred a record-setting deficit of $1.4 trillion. For fiscal year 2010, the federal government plans to spend $3.5 trillion, leaving a deficit shortfall of an additional $1.5 trillion. According to the federal government, our total debt was $13.5 trillion at the end of 2008. [...]
What Obamanomics Has Meant for Latinos
September 29, 2011 By
From Real Clear Markets: From September 15 to October 15, America celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month, signed into law by President Reagan in 1988. How have Latinos fared in America over the past three years, since they helped to send Barack Obama to the White House? Like many Americans, not well. President Obama won 67 percent [...]
Argonne researchers ‘hack’ Diebold e-voting system
From ComputerWorld.com: Breaking into system using a $10 electronic component was ‘ridiculously easy,’ says official at national research lab. Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory this week showed how an electronic voting machine model that’s expected to be widely used to tally votes in the 2012 elections can be easily hacked using inexpensive, widely-available electronic [...]