Tag Archives: Government waste

News

Vending machine snacks to be made healthier with 373M of stimulus money

10/15/2009 Wintery Knight 1 Comment

Story from the Examiner. (H/T Big Government via ECM)

Excerpt:

First Lady Michelle Obama visited the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington Tuesday. She devoted much of her talk to “the growing threat of obesity, particularly childhood obesity” in the United States, and she touted HHS’s recently-announced plan to spend $373 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on plans to, among other things, improve the healthfulness of foods in vending machines.

The first lady did not discuss how such work might stimulate the economy or speed economic recovery. But she had glowing praise for the stimulus’ role in fighting obesity. “Congress and the president included $1 billion for prevention and wellness programs in the Recovery Act,” she told the crowd of cheering DHS workers, “and that includes funding for initiatives that will give communities the resources they need to address the obesity epidemic in their communities. This includes $373 million announced last month that would be available for communities that put together comprehensive plans to reduce obesity –- $373 million — and that would include everything from incentivizing grocery stores to locate in underserved areas; it could include improving meals at school; to getting more healthy, affordable foods into vending machines; to creating more safe, accessible places for people to exercise and play; and a whole lot more.”

How does this stimulate the economy? I understand how it allows socialists like Michelle Obama to primp and preen in front of crowds and cameras, but how does it help unemployed Americans to earn a paycheck?

News

Trial lawyer lobby running a 6.2M deficit as economy tanks

09/28/2009 Wintery Knight Leave a comment

Story from the Washington Times. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

The trial lawyers lobby has been awash in debt and bleeding members – just as it embarks on a national campaign to block any clampdown on medical malpractice lawsuits as part of President Obama’s health care overhaul.

The American Association for Justice, the most prominent group representing plaintiffs’ attorneys, has seen a shake-up in its executive suite and has struggled to deal with what appears to be a mounting budget shortfall. To help it fight congressional efforts to make it harder for patients to sue doctors and lawyers, it recently sent out an extra solicitation to its members, asking them to fork over money for a lobbying campaign.

The most striking evidence of its financial woes is a swift decline in income, which resulted in a more than $6.2 million deficit in its operating budget for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2008, the most recent year for which data are available.

The biggest hit to its books was in membership dues, which dropped from $28.6 million in 2005 to $19.2 million in 2008, according to the annual AAJ financial report for that fiscal year filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Trial lawyers raise health care expenses for patients and doctors.

Consider this article from the Weekly Standard. (H/T The Heritage Foundation)

Excerpt:

There are credible estimates that serious tort reform could save the country between $100 and $200 billion annually in wasteful spending, as doctors practice defensive medicine to preempt lawsuits. … Now Obama says he’s going to study the issue. “I am directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today,” he said.

That would be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, whose resume includes eight years as director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association.

So Obama has chosen a former industry lobbyist to run tort reform.

Why are people cynical about health care reform?

According to Howard Dean, the trial lawyer lobby prevented the Democrats from including tort reform in the health care bill. They helped to elect Obama, and so Obama could not oppose them in his health care bill. The Democrats are a party dominated by special interest groups who contribute nothing to the economy.

Don’t forget that Obama picked a union lobbyist to be in charge of creating manufacturing jobs!

News

Understanding the long-term forecast for the federal budget

09/21/2009 Wintery Knight 2 Comments

Watch this 2 minute video from Political Math.

Mandatory spending includes entitlements like social security, medicare and medicaid. It also includes payments on the national debt, which Obama intends to grow from about 12 trillion to about 19 trillion. The problem is that mandatory spending is set to skyrocket out of control in the next 8 years, and there isn’t any money available to pay for it.

Attacking businesses and productive individuals just reduces the amounts collected in income and sales taxes. In other words, taxing the rich just lowers government revenues by destroying economic growth. No one gets out of bed in the morning to earn 50% of what they are worth.