[Vision2020] Some People Never Get it

Moscow Cares moscowcares at moscow.com
Wed Sep 21 10:53:02 PDT 2011


The CAGW is soooooo right-wing that . . .

If CAGW were any more to the right they'd make Bachmann look liberal.

Courtesy of "Citizens Against Government Waste" at:

http://www.cagw.org/ccagw/government-affairs/ratings/2008/

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House and Senate Breakdown
In the House, Reps. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Mike Pence (R-Ind.), John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) achieved “Taxpayer Super Hero” status with a grade of 100 percent.  In 2008, Rep. Broun was the sole Taxpayer Super Hero and CCAGW applauds him for maintaining this perfect score two years in a row.  There were 89 “Taxpayer Heroes” with a grade of 80 percent or above, 30 more than the 59 in 2008. 

In 2009, unfortunately, there were an astonishing number of members, all Democrats, who took home a shameful zero percent score.  In 2006, there were nine members with a zero rating; in 2007 there were only two; and in 2008 the number grew to a larger, yet still relatively small, 34.  In 2009, however, a whopping 105 members, or 41 percent of the 256 House Democrats, scored a big fat zero.  That list includes Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin (D-Mich.).  These members could not manage to support a single fiscally responsible measure out of the 120 House votes analyzed by CCAGW, including four votes to reduce discretionary spending in appropriations bills by a meager 5 percent, and a vote to cut $1 million for the Environmental Science Initiative at Drew University in Madison, N.J., which has an endowment of $171 million and charges $50,000 annually for tuition, room and board.

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I'll leave it up to you fine V-peeps to google the records of Reps. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Mike Pence (R-Ind.), John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.). And these "works in progress" are considered "tax heroes" by the CAGW.  Kinda speaks for itself, huh?

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 


 

On Sep 21, 2011, at 10:35, lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com> wrote:

> Thanks
> This is the sort of things that Citizens Against Government Waste routinely point out.
> Roger
> -----Original message-----
> From: "Art Deco" deco at moscow.com
> Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:54:29 -0700
> To: Vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] Some People Never Get it
> 
>> 
>> a.. 
>> 
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> September 20, 2011
>> $16 Muffins, and Taxpayers Pick Up the Tab
>> By CHARLIE SAVAGE
>> WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Tuesday came under criticism for "extravagant and potentially wasteful" spending on conferences at the end of the Bush administration and early in the Obama administration, including paying $16 per muffin and $8 per eight-ounce cup of coffee at certain events. 
>> 
>> "Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending - especially when service charges, taxes, and indirect costs are factored into the actual price paid for food and beverages," said a newly released report by the department's acting inspector general, Cynthia Schnedar. 
>> 
>> The report scrutinized spending at a sampling of conferences from October 2007 to September 2009, focusing on eye-popping calculations of food and beverage expenses. For example, at a four-day conference in November 2007 at the Grand Hyatt in Denver on the "Amber Alert" system for searching for missing children, taxpayers ended up paying $5.57 for each of 1,334 cans of soda. 
>> 
>> A five-day conference in August 2009 at the Capital Hilton in Washington to train immigration lawyers saved money by serving only snacks. But it still cost $4,200 for 250 muffins and $2,880 for 300 cookies and brownies, more than $16 a muffin and nearly $10 per cookie and brownie. 
>> 
>> The department said that it had brought such spending under better control in the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years, which were outside the scope of the audit. 
>> 
>> Moreover, the department told auditors that some food costs were exaggerated because of the way deals with the hotels were often structured: the hotels provided "free" meeting space in exchange for an agreement to use their pricey food and beverage services. 
>> 
>> Planners often did no cost-benefit analysis to determine whether it would have been thriftier to pay for the meeting space directly and obtain cheaper catering, the report said. But it noted that the conferences often ended up spending tens of thousands more on food and beverage than the minimum necessary to secure the "free" meeting rooms. 
>> 
>> Over all during the 2008-9 fiscal years, the department spent $121 million to host or participate in 1,832 conferences. The report focused on 10 of those conferences that cost $4.4 million, and questioned $134,432 in spending. 
>> 
>> The report also criticized as "unreasonable" certain travel by planners. For example, a consultant in Anchorage was hired to help put on a 2008 Indian Nations conference in California. The consultant billed $3,454 to make the 2,400-mile trip three times. 
>> 
>> While the department largely agreed with the report's findings and recommendations, it said it had been reasonable to hire the Alaskan consultant, who had special expertise in a variety of matters like Alaskan tribal culture and federal grant procedures. 
>> 
>> The inspector general previously criticized similar overspending in a 2007 audit. Department supervisors in 2008 and 2009 issued rules and memorandums to limit such costs. But the report found that several conferences put on afterward had nevertheless exceeded such limits. 
>> 
>> ___________________________
>> Wayne A. Fox
>> wayne.a.fox at gmail.com
>> 
>> 
> 
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