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Public School Spending Like There’s No Tomorrow
The failed and bankrupt Los Angeles public school district is spending money like there’s no tomorrow—which for the students it’s failing to educate is unfortunately true. The school district,...
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The Jason Lewis Show Interviews Emily Skarbek on the Government Cost Calculator
Dr. Emily Skarbek, Director of the Government Cost Calculator was interviewed on the nationally syndicated radio program, “The Jason Lewis Show” (Premiere Radio Networks). In the program, Dr. Skarbek...
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Dr. Emily Skarbek Talks about the Government Cost Calculator on Taking Back...
Dr. Emily Skarbek, Director of the Independent Institute’s Government Cost Calculator was interviewed on the nationally syndicated, web, radio blog, “Taking Back America”. During the interview, Dr....
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California Diesel Law Based on Gross Overestimate
The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that the California Air Resources Board overestimated pollution from off-road diesel vehicles by 340 percent. The agency had used that estimate as the basis...
View ArticleI Now Report Sightings of Shovel-Ready Projects
I was on the road a good deal last week, driving from my home in southeast Louisiana first through a long stretch of Mississippi to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, then to the outskirts of Birmingham and on to...
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MyGovCost.org Director Emily Skarbek Talks Tax Cuts and the Government Cost...
Download mp3 file. The Government Cost Calculator is a project of the Independent Institute’s Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation. To find out what Washington’s spending spree is costing you, please...
View ArticleEmily Skarbek Is Interviewed on the Government Cost Calculator on Reason TV
Independent Institute Research Fellow Emily Skarbek is interviewed here by Nick Gillespie of Reason TV regarding the Institute’s very timely and far-reaching Government Cost Calculator. The Calculator...
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Governmental “Reform” Is an Oxymoron
Pick your favorite scandal du jour: Four employees of the Export-Import Bank recently were forced out of their jobs following allegations that they had solicited or accepted bribes from beneficiaries...
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“Fleeced Navidad” Government Wastes Taxpayer Money Tracking Santa
“He’s sees you when you’re sleeping. He’s knows when you’re awake.” Chances are you recognize these lines from the famous Christmas tune, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” We can debate about how it is...
View ArticleFeds Spend $3M to Find Out Why Clubbers Get Drunk and Aggressive
Perhaps unaware of centuries of evidence that suggests some kind of connection between excessive alcohol consumption and aggressive behavior on the part of revelers, including its own, the U.S....
View ArticleA Sleeping Watchdog at the VA
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has a lot of problems. Perhaps the worst of which is the extent to which corruption has become institutionalized within the VA. To guard against corruption, the...
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Federal Bureaucrats Behaving Badly
The Government Accountability Office recently reported on federal employee misconduct within the U.S. government. Eric Katz of GovExec covered the report’s surprising main finding: One in four federal...
View ArticleEducation Waste Leaves Taxpayers No Choice
By government standards $62,500 is not a lot of money, but there’s more to learn for taxpayers, parents and students in this San Diego Union-Tribune story. A lawsuit by the California Taxpayers Action...
View ArticleConstruction of California’s Stonehenge Costing $3.1 Million Per Day
Historian Victor Davis Hanson coined a great nickname for California’s Bullet Train construction project, calling it “California’s Stonehenge.” The project is proving to be a very costly monument to...
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The Fifty-Cent Fix for the Air Force’s Broken $1,200 Coffee Cups
The story of how the U.S. Air Force found a fifty-cent fix for its broken $1,200+ coffee cups is one for the “you’ve got to be kidding me” section in the volumes of examples of how the federal...
View ArticleThe DEA’s New $42,595 Vacuum Cleaner for Spies
The various branches of the federal government sometimes spend taxpayer dollars in very strange ways. And though strange often turns into a synonym for wasteful, that isn’t yet clear from the following...
View ArticleA New Ally in the Quest for Honest Reporting
It’s no secret that the media are in bad shape and that is particularly true in California. Journalists think Jerry Brown is some kind of sage, even after the recurring governor dismissed safety issues...
View ArticleFirst Class Flying and Dining on Taxpayer Dollars
When some federal bureaucrats have the opportunity to feast out on the town at taxpayer expense, they go all out. Washington Post investigative journalist Robert O’Harrow reports on how well some of...
View ArticleAnother Really Bad Idea in Illinois
California isn’t the only state with a federal government-funded bullet train project that will never live up to expectations. The state of Illinois has one too, but unlike California’s high-speed rail...
View ArticleBureaucrats Licensed to Spend Your Tax Dollars
Every September, as the end of the U.S. government’s fiscal year draws near, thousands of federal bureaucrats go on a massive spending bender, lest they risk having their future budgets cut in the next...
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