Recently, the Contra Costa Times in California published an article about Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, and judging by the title, Rep. George Miller Delivers Millions For Campaign Contributor, you can be sure he was none to happy having his exploits exposed.

The article draws attention to a relationship between Mr. Miller and defense contractor SecuriMetrics, Inc, which is located in his district.  The article goes on to detail the $4.6 million in federal funding Miller has managed to secure for the company. 

Furthermore, Since 2004, Mr. Miller who is a staunch opponent of the war on terror, has also received & accepted over $16,090 in campaign contributions from current and past executives of SecuriMetrics. Meanwhile, he continued to acquire earmarks for SecuriMetrics.  I think you can draw your own conclusion.

Moreover, this money is being used for product development; I bet you didn’t know the money coming out of your paychecks would be going towards SecuriMetrics product development division…George Miller has seen a return on investment...have you?

Sadly, this story has become par for the course in Congress.  It is ridiculous that Members of Congress can send taxpayer dollars to their districts in exchange for lucrative campaign contributions. Despite what some of my colleagues may believe, they are not money machines and I am intent on putting this practice to an end.

I find that often times political cartoons can express a sentiment just as strongly as words do, and occasionally I post them here for you to see. 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is worth at least 50 billion more…



Published in National Journal’s CongressDailyAM on June 9, 2008.

Since 1993, the Senate side restaurants have lost more than $18 million and it is estimated that the cafeterias have lost as much as $2 million already this year, and without a $250,000 subsidy from taxpayers, the Senate won't make payroll next month. 

I know this may seem like something of pure fantasy, but I assure you it is true, and yet another example of government mismanagement. 

Last week in a late night voice vote, the Senate passed a measure agreeing to privatize its restaurants and cafeterias. According to GAO, the Senate Restaurants bring in more than $10 million a year in food sales but have turned a profit in only seven of the last 44 years in operation. 

Senator Feinstein (D-CA), blames the poor quality of food, but I am inclined to believe, as is the case in many government endeavors, the lack of entrepreneurial incentive contributes to poor food quality, high prices, and eventually the need for more government subsidy.

Senators needn’t look far for confirmation of a successful example of privatization; the House privatized its cafeterias in the 1980s, and since 2003 has turned a profit of roughly $1.2 million.

Yesterday afternoon, the Senate approved a bloated $3.1 trillion budget, $21 billion above the President’s request.  Despite the looming entitlement crisis and a deficit of nearly half a trillion dollars, the budget does nothing to address these issues, not to mention that it allows more than 20 million taxpayers to be burdened by the alternative minimum tax (AMT) after next year, it fails to renew President Bush’s tax cuts, doesn’t even point out the need for earmark reform, nor does it take into account the more than $50 billion dollar GI Bill, which will likely be approved by Congress sometime next week.

If it wasn’t apparent before, it is crystal clear now; the current majority is more willing to pass on existing problems to the next administration and Congress rather than work towards a solution now.

This scenario is courtesy of Americans for Tax Reform

This is a tax increase supported by Democrat Barack Obama and all Congressional Democrats, and opposed by Senator John McCain and Americans for Tax Reform.  These taxpayers have a face, and ATR will be showcasing them all week long.

The Davis Family: A Middle Income Family in Middle America

Mike and Susan Davis live in Canton, OH.  They have two children: Tommie is 5, and Christine is 3.  They have a household income of $65,000 (the median amount for a family of four).  They take the standard deduction.  How much are their taxes scheduled to rise?

If the Present Tax Code Remains in Place

The Davis’ will have a federal tax bill of $3000

Under the 2011 Tax

The Davis’ standard deduction is shrunk because of the return of the marriage penalty.

This means that their taxable income goes up.

The tax rate on the first several thousand dollars of their taxable income has grown by 50%.

The child tax credit has been cut in half, so Tommie and Christine don’t help as much.

The Davis’ tax bill will be over $5000—a full $2000 higher than if present law were simply kept in place.

Just before the recess, during a hearing on Capitol Hill Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) was questioning representatives and leaders from the petroleum industry.

I am afraid the truth is that this is indicative of what this Congress wants to do.

The Democratic majority has routinely rejected every proposed tax reduction on Americans and they have steadfastly stuck to their insistence on repealing every tax reduction passed during this century. That will raise taxes on every single American who currently pays taxes and add some new ones to the tax rolls.

But there is one group that apparently is deserving of a tax cut, according to the majority. Contingent fee trial lawyers. Yep, you heard me correctly. Buried in a recent tax increase bill (which I opposed and the president will likely veto) was a special tax break for trail lawyers paid under a contingent fee. It would allow them to deduct their expenses on a contingent fee case whenever they incur them rather than wait, as current law requires, until the case is concluded. This bill contained mainly tax increases on lots of other businesses. This was one of the few tax cuts in the bill.

Maybe this is to aid the struggling trial lawyer industry? After all, they are the engine of our economy aren't they? They employ so many people? Yeah right.

Is there any question what special interests rule the roost now?

Today the Washington Post reported on a massive new program in the recently passed farm bill that managed to slip by most House members and staff, during consideration of the 637 page farm package last week.

The new program will install a program to increase taxpayer-financed subsidies by billions of dollars if high commodity prices decline down to the historic typical levels.  Therefore if commodity prices drop from their current exorbitantly high levels, the government would institute subsidies to match current inflated commodity prices.

The program in question, dubbed the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE), if enacted will be a bloated and wasteful program since the subsidy amounts are tied to recent record commodity prices.

For instance, the Agriculture Department has projected that subsidy payments for corn alone could reach $10 billion per year if prices were to drop from its current extravagant price of $5-$6 per bushel to $3.25 a bushel; a level that was seen last year.  Currently, subsidies are disbursed when bushel prices drop below $2.63. 

If this senseless level of subsidation wasn’t enough, the farm bill also includes billions of dollars in additional subsidies and handouts to wealthy farmers.  That’s not to mention the other horrific parts of this legislation, but that is for another blog.

This is hardly an example of sound fiscal policy to say the least.

The Defense Authorization Bill for 2009 is set to hit the floor today and already a battle is brewing over earmarks.  House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) included a provision in the enormous Defense authorization that rejects President Bush’s Executive Order: Protecting American Taxpayers From Government Spending on Wasteful Earmarks which directs Executive Branch agencies not to commit, obligate, or expend funds on the basis of earmarks included in the actual text of legislation. Not only do they undo President Bush’s executive order, they also have indicated their intent to “sneak” earmarks into bills at the last minute using a process known as “airdropping”, will be actively used. 

The provision inserted into the bill is only 5 lines long but effectively declares that the president’s executive order “shall not apply”.  The bill currently lists 541 individual projects totaling $9.9 billion in the accompanying report.      

It appears that the earmarkers are now more determined than ever to bring home the bacon.

Oink.

Today the House will consider the Budget Resolution Conference Report for 2009.  The report calls for record tax increases, increases discretionary spending by $241 billion above the President’s level over 5 years, and does nothing to reform entitlements or earmarks. Below are some of the highlights of what this budget WILL do:

• Raises taxes by at least $683 billion over the next 5 years. These include increases in marginal tax rates; elimination of the 10-percent bracket for lower-income taxpayers; restore the marriage penalty, the death tax, as well as install higher tax rates on investments.
• Authorizes More Than $1 Trillion over and above entitlements. The conference report increases so called “discretionary spending” by $21 above the President’s request, pushing it above $1 trillion for 2009. This translates to a spending increase of $241 billion when extended over 5 years.
• Entitlements Continue on Automatic Pilot. This budget does nothing to address the growing entitlement problem. Medicare and Social Security alone currently face $40 billion in unfunded liabilities, and that figure is growing unchecked every year.
• Record Debt Increase. Although Democrats claim to balance the budget by 2012, the conference report results in the largest debt increase in history – from $8.951 trillion in 2007 to $9.575 trillion in 2008 – and increase of $624 billion this year.
• No Earmark Reform. Having repeatedly decried the scandal of earmarks, the Majority does nothing in the budget to address them. Last year’s appropriations bills included some 11,000 earmarks totaling $14.8 billion – and under this budget, the trend will continue.

Not only will this budget stifle economic growth, it will increase our debt level, and authorize an enormous amount of money for discretionary spending.  That isn’t even accounting for what the budget fails to do! ….Scary thought isn’t it?

I read a lot of political discourse that is pretty tedious and boring. I never want this blog to sink to that level. I understand that there is always a risk of that when I bring up such scintillating topics as international tax policy and mortgage origination regulations. Stop yawning!

Anyway, so here is the very first Campbell Quiz. These are a few questions about current events in Congress and politics. And no, I will not make you wait until next week to find the answers. They are all at the end of each question. Good luck, have fun.......oh yeah and maybe you'll learn something you didn't know too!

1) Two weeks ago, Congress passed a "technical corrections bill" that contained hundreds of new transportation earmarks including $90 million to study a "maglev" (magnetic levitation) train. This train would run a route that is currently served by dozens of daily airline flights and at a fare of about $118. If it takes $90 million to study it, imagine what it would take to subsidize it. This train would run between:

a) New York and Washington
b) Anaheim and Las Vegas
c) Cincinnati and Cleveland
d) San Francisco and Honolulu

Answer: (b). This earmark was originally put forth by Harry Reid (D-NV) to subsidize bringing more people to Vegas. If any of you picked (d) (San Francisco and Honolulu), please stop reading this until you sober up.
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The House is currently considering the supplemental appropriations bill for the troops on the floor.  Aside from the setting of an arbitrary withdrawal deadline, and various other provisions I do not agree with, the supplemental has several domestically directed additions as well as a tax increase to top it all off.

First, this piece of legislation includes language that will expand veteran’s education benefits to the tune of $51.6 billion over ten years.  I don’t think anyone can argue that the modernization of education benefits for veterans is long overdue, but it must be done responsibly.  This expansion of benefits will, according to the Pentagon, and former P.O.W. and Navy Captain, John McCain discourage retention rates among active duty personnel. 

Second, it provides thirteen weeks of unemployment compensation to workers, and for states with unemployment rates that exceed 6%, the benefits would be extended for another thirteen weeks. History shows, that extending unemployment benefits longer actually keeps people unemployed for longer periods of time. Besides, unemployment benefits have nothing to do with this supplemental appropriations bill.

Lastly, Democrats have proposed a job-killing tax increase on individuals making more than $500,000 and couples making more than $1 million. According to the Tax Foundation, nearly 83 percent of filers who will be hit by the Democrat tax increase report some form of income from a small business, sole proprietorship, or partnership. According to ADP, last month, small businesses created 56,000 jobs, while the economy lost 20,000 jobs overall. The last thing we should be doing is raising taxes on the innovators and entrepreneurs who are critical to getting our economy back on track.

Three major domestic aspects of a supplemental appropriations bill that has nothing to do with domestic policy…what’s next?

Yesterday, the House passed the Farm Bill, and as my blog indicated yesterday, I voted against this bill for a variety of reasons, but there is one piece I am sure that Democrats will be sure to exclude from their talking points.  An earmark inserted by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) for a “Qualified Forestry Bonds Program”, which would provide federally funded-tax credit bonds for purchases that meet the following standards:

• The forest must be adjacent to U.S. Forest Service Land;
• Half of the parcel must be turned over to the U.S. Forest Service;
• It must include at least 40,000 total acres; and
• It must be subject to a “native fish habitat conservation plan approved by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.”

You might have guessed it, but there is only one piece of land that meets these qualifications, a 1.6 million acre piece of land, owned by the Plum Creek Timber Company.

The Plum Creek Timber Company is attempting to sell the qualifying land to the Nature Conservancy, which has been touted by the Washington Post as the “world’s richest environmental group, with $3 billion in assets.”

This earmark will allow the Nature Conservancy to claim a $250 million ‘Tax Refund’ which would basically provide additional motivation for the group to purchase the land.  Keep in mind, that this tax refund would go to a conservancy group that has 501(c)3 organization, so it doesn’t pay taxes in the first place, according to the earmark the tax refund would be provided anyway.

If that wasn’t enough, according to the FEC, employees of plum Creek Timber have donated nearly $17,000 to Senator Baucus’ campaign fund.

The endowment of $250 million of taxpayer funds to encourage a rich environmental group to purchase land from a Senator’s wealthy campaign donors…I wish I could say the audacity of some Members of Congress surprises me, but I can’t.