The House's Budget Gambit Could Be Costly Politically
The possibility for a government shutdown should policymakers fail to reach an agreement on spending by October 1 is the topic du jour in Washington. The last time a government shutdown occurred over a...
View ArticleSSDI (Problems) in the News
My recent paper on the rising cost of Social Security Disability Insurance is proving to be timely. First, the Washington Post’s Michael Fletcher provides a good overview of SSDI’s “issues.” Fletcher...
View ArticleThe Government (Non) Shutdown
It’s looking like it will take a week or more for Republicans and Democrats to reach an agreement to “reopen” the federal government. Regardless, with each passing hour a resolution necessarily becomes...
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Senate Committee Hearing on Disability Fraud
On Sunday, CBS’s 60 Minutes profiled Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) on-going investigation of fraud and abuse in the federal government’s two main disability programs: Social Security Disability Insurance...
View ArticleGovernment “Shutdown” Shuts Down Beer
I’ve taken a lot of flak from establishment media types and angry federal employees for my contention that the hullabaloo over the so-called government “shutdown” is excessive. The fact is most...
View ArticleThe Budget Showdown Concludes -- with Setting up a New One
Back on September 12th, I wrote that insisting on defunding or delaying Obamacare in exchange for keeping the government open and/or increasing the debt limit would end badly for Republicans.It did.My...
View ArticleRepublicans' Errors May Lead to Higher Federal Spending
Almost three weeks before the government went into a partial shutdown, I warned that a Republican insistence on defunding or delaying the president’s signature Affordable Care Act in exchange for...
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Disability Overpayments
CNN.com has an article today on disability overpayments made by the Social Security Administration ($1.3 billion over two years according to a recent Government Accountability Office report). Although...
View ArticleWater Infrastructure Bill: Bipartisanship Lives!
Last week, the Republican-controlled House overwhelmingly passed a water infrastructure bill with only three members (two Republicans and one Democrat) voting against. In what must have been a moving...
View ArticleGovernment Planning in Indiana with Federal Funds
According to popular myth, Democrats favor government planning of the economy and Republicans favor free markets. Today’s example of why this is baloney comes from the Republican governor of Indiana,...
View ArticleGood Reporting on Federal Subsidies to State and Local Government
Reporters who cover state and local government should heed the example of the Topeka-Capital Journal’s Andy Marso. It’s my opinion that reporters often insufficiently examine how state and local...
View ArticleMike Pence Ran off Rails in Bailing out Amtrak Line
For more than 40 years, Amtrak has relied on $1 billion or more a year in taxpayer handouts to run slow, and often late, passenger trains. Indeed, the man considered to be the “father” of Amtrak,...
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