In The Aggregate - Arizona's political blogs » taxpayer

Where Does Your Tax Dollar Go?

Christopher Cook — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:00:14 +0000

ICYMI, on Tax Day, Heritage provided a useful chart showing federal spending, by percent, laid out on an image of a dollar bill. As it happens, we at Western Free Press did the same thing last year. Below are the two charts. Notice how entitlement spen...

Bankrupting America’s Spending Daily

Bankrupting America — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:15:16 +0000

Spending Daily | April 18, 2013

“Hamel: No more taxes, Mr. President”

Public Notice Executive Director Gretchen Hamel editorializes in The Richmond Times Dispatch, “In business, you have to compete. The only way to attract new jobs and create economic growth is by cultivating a better environment for businesses to thrive. Virginians understand this, and so do their neighbors. North Carolina is considering legislation to drop its corporate tax rate to 4.9 percent, which would be the lowest ...

Broken Record: Beggar’s Banquet

Bankrupting America — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:15:24 +0000

Broken Record: Beggar’s Banquet

RECORD REVENUES: Federal Gov’t Projected To Collect Most Revenue In History In 2013: “The federal government is projected to collect more revenue in 2013 than ever before, a statistic Republicans are touting to make the case that the government has a spending problem, not a taxing one. … Both the CBO and the White House estimate the government will collect around $2.7 trillion in 2013, up from around $2.45 trillion last year.” (Bernie Becker, ...

Bankrupting America’s Spending Daily

Bankrupting America — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:00:24 +0000

Spending Daily | April 16, 2013

Pray For Boston

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, families and friends of all those who were impacted by the bombings at the Boston Marathon. The American spirit is evident in the acts of courage and heroism by first responders, emergency personnel, police and fire department officials and the thousands of selfless individuals who helped rescue the injured and bring them to safety. Public Notice will be using its social ...

Betsey Bayless’ $500,000 Taxpayer Funded Salary

AZ News — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:20:18 +0000

Who Wants to be a Half-Millionaire? Arizona’s Top Paid Unelected Bureaucrat

The controversy surrounding the recent mental health care contract given to Maricopa Integrated Health Systems by the State of Arizona is gaining momentum. Several local conservative blogs have reported on the story recently. The contract, which stands to be worth $2 billion to $3 billion (depending on whether the state adopts Medicaid expansion), is the largest health contract the state has ever awarded.

At the center of the controversy is ...

Mind-boggling video of government waste!

Bankrupting America — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:15:27 +0000

Bankrupting America Releases New Web Video: Your Tax Dollars At Work

Arlington, Va. – Bankrupting America, a project of Public Notice, today released a new tax day web video, “Your Tax Dollars At Work,” asking Americans whether they feel Washington is spending their tax dollars wisely. This video highlights concerns for the way money is being spent in Washington, including reactions to recent headlines exposing real government waste.

The money that Washington squanders on a daily basis comes ...

Government Contract Rigged for MIHS?

Rand McPherson — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:18:49 +0000

Magellan Health Services filed a “formal protest and a lawsuit” against Maricopa Integrated Health Services or MIHS. Magellan had managed a contract that included serving Maricopa County’s poor since 2007. Magellan’s complaint alleges numerous irregularities: In its protest, Magellan alleges that Mercy Maricopa has “serious conflicts of interest” because Mercy Maricopa intends to both manage [...]

IRS Not Ready to Enforce Obamacare Provisions

David Leeper — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:30:49 +0000

Most everyone has seen the chart above. When I first saw it, I thought it was satire. But it’s a good faith attempt to show the organizations and interfaces needed to implement Obamacare. No kidding.

Of course the chart doesn’t show what goes on inside the boxes, but Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) has dipped into just one of them — the IRS box at the top-center of the chart. They have listed 47 differerent taxes and ...

Immigration Reform Proponents Add Speed to Secrecy

John Walker — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:45:31 +0000

For weeks a select group of eight United States Senators has been busy behind closed doors drafting their own version of immigration reform; now a consensus is building that says reform needs to be passed quickly. Speed has been added to secrecy.

President Obama signaled his own preference in a recent interview when he said he hopes to have a bill on his desk within months. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy wants Committee action on a bill next month, a ...

The Do-Something Disease Is Going to Kill Us All

John Walker — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:20:29 +0000

Runaway Federal Spending: Problems in Search of Programs

As taxpayers grow numb with the constant drumbeat of bad economic news and looming federal bankruptcy, occasionally a fact jumps out that still has the power to command attention.

“It’s estimated that the government will have spent as much in the first four years of the new decade as it did in all of the 1990s.”

That is one sentence from a story by Doug McKelway on Fox News. It drove home the alarming ...