Last month, I shared a video about bloated bureaucracy from a group called Government Gone Wild. That generated a big response, so here’s another video from the same group, only this one looks at egregious examples of government waste. If you like videos on wasteful…
Daily Analysis
The Federal Budget Process and Bureaucratic Incentives, Nicely Captured by a Cartoon
I’ve done a video on excessive compensation for bureaucrats and I’ve written many times about wasteful spending, but here’s a cartoon that manages to effectively combine both concepts. If your eyes are getting old like mine, you may need to click on the image to read…
DoE Inspector General: Government Too Incompetent to Spend Stimulus
Gregory H. Friedman, Inspector General for the Department of Energy, testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this morning (Hat-tip: Adam Peshek at the Reason Foundation). Not only was the stimulus based upon bad Keynesian economics, but…
More “Success Stories” from the So-Called Stimulus
Wow. Even by the low standards of government, here are a couple of remarkable stories about government waste from Obama’s failed stimulus scheme. Let’s start with an example of crony capitalism. The federal government decided to subsidize the wealthy shareholders of…
Social Security Administration Sides with “Adult Baby,” Dumps Diaper Contents on Taxpayers
I must not be very bright. Even after decades of experience in Washington, I still have this naive belief that bureaucrats and politicians will occasionally do the right thing – even if for no other reason other than to cover their rear ends after being caught doing…
Super Committee Must Focus on Spending
The so-called Super Committee has been tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years. Though with the President’s recent call for another half-trillion in stimulus that he claims would be payed for, they would need to find $2…
Report from World Economic Forum Gives U.S. Poor Grades for Wasteful Spending and Burdensome Regulation
The latest issue of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report contains some rather damning information about government incompetence in the United States. America ranks only 68th in the “Wastefulness of Government Spending” category (page 373) and 49th…
U.S. Needs to Ditch the OECD
This past week Standard and Poor’s lowered their credit rating for the U.S. for the first time ever amidst debt ceiling debates over the growing federal deficit. Our leaders have nearly all acknowledged that to get the credit rating back to AAA there will need…
Is Pentagon Waste Even More Egregious than Welfare-State Waste?
I realize that national defense is one of the few legitimate functions of the federal government, but that doesn’t mean the Pentagon budget isn’t riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse. Here’s a jaw-dropping example reported by Bloomberg. A U.S. contractor in Iraq…
Just in Case You Need One More Reason Why the Department of Housing and Urban Development Should Be Abolished…
While I’ve been somewhat critical of Senator Coburn’s willingness to raise taxes, I’ve never doubted that he is a sincere and tireless fighter for smaller government. Indeed, his staff periodically share examples of government waste that boggle the mind, though I…