Powerful industries field armies of lobbyists – some employing more than one lobbyist per member of Congress – to push for spending and tax preferences that waste our tax dollars. Interest groups exert influence in a variety of ways on the lawmakers best positioned to help their cause. Exposing these connections is a critical step in holding lawmakers accountable and reining in wasteful federal spending.
Explore the Expose Special Interests Program-
Fact Sheets | Expose Special Interests
Coal Industry Profits
For centuries the federal government has been in the business of providing billions in subsidies to coal companies in order to ensure company profits....

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Policy Briefs | Expose Special Interests
House Farm Bill Draft Analysis
Like the Senate bill before it, the House bill inches in the right direction by eliminating direct payments, but dramatically falls backward in other ways...

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Budget & Tax
Bridge to Nowhere
Rep Don Young (R-AK) was awarded the Golden Fleece Award by Taxpayers for Common Sense for trying to sell America's taxpayers a $315 million "bridge to nowhere" in rural Alaska...

The federal budget is rife with taxpayer giveaways to special interests. Telling the story of wasteful federal spending involves exposing the influence that powerful industries cultivate in Washington through campaign contributions and lobbying. ...More
Top 10 Fiscal Cliff Tax Fails
January 02, 2013
Washington’s last minute deal to avert the fiscal cliff saw the return of many never-ending “temporary” tax breaks. While the bulk of the...
President Ms. Ryan Alexander Sliding Past Sequestration Statement
October 01, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2012
CONTACTS:
Steve Ellis
202-546-8500 x126
or steve@taxpayer.net
Taxpayers for Common Sense...
Counting on Speculative Oil and Gas Revenues to Fund our Transportation Needs is Fiscally Reckless
February 01, 2012
Today the House Natural Resources Committee considered the energy portions of the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act (the...
A Legacy for Earmarks (updated 11/14/2011)
November 14, 2011
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today passed its version of a transportation reauthorization bill, to replace the existing...
TCS Releases Report on Largest Ethanol Subsidy
June 08, 2011
Today Taxpayers for Common Sense released a comprehensive report on the largest subsidy to corn ethanol, the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax...
TCS VP Steve Ellis on CNN discussing ways in which Congress is “Bypassing the Earmark Ban”
June 03, 2011
Members of Congress promised an end to earmarks, but guess what? They found another way to spend your money.
In this Memorial Day weekend,...
Crop Insurance Administrative Policy Changes
January 30, 2013
Several administrative changes could be implemented to reduce taxpayer costs and limit the unintended consequences of federal crop insurance. ...
Haves and Have-Nots in Federal Crop Insurance
October 31, 2012
Federally subsidized crop insurance has become the largest taxpayer support for agriculture. But not all parts of the agriculture industry...
Sliding Past Sequestration: $2 Trillion in Common Sense Cuts to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff
October 01, 2012
In the summer of 2011, Congress sent the President a bill that acknowledged failure. Instead of swallowing hard and coming up with trillions...
Record Drought Results in Record Profit
August 30, 2012
Special interests are always looking for a silver lining. This year, it’s the farm lobby and sympathetic politicians shamelessly taking...
Claire McCaskill re-introduces Earmark Elimination Act in Senate
February 11, 2013 | University of Missouri - Maneater
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., re-introduced bipartisan legislation that would permanently ban earmark spending in Congress.
The Earmark...
Even Without Earmarks, Tax Breaks And Special Deals Fill Bills
February 08, 2013 | NPR - Morning Edition
Congress likes to say it no longer does earmarks, the provisions that direct federal dollars to serve local interests or campaign...
‘Fiscal cliff’ bill filled with ‘pork’
January 03, 2013 | San Francisco Chronicle
The rancorously debated "fiscal cliff" bill approved by Congress this week was supposed to be a straightforward way for the country to avert...
Compromise added billions in special tax breaks
January 03, 2013 | The Republican-American (McClatchy Newspapers)
WASHINGTON — In the last-minute dealmaking to stop the nation from tumbling over the so-called fiscal cliff, Congress and the White House...
‘Fiscal cliff’ bill riddled with special tax breaks for select industries
January 03, 2013 | The Commercial Appeal (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON — The "fiscal cliff" bill that prevented income taxes from rising for most Americans also renewed special tax breaks for a...
