Policy Briefs

Senate Supports Nuke Labs, Border Fence in Stimulus

 The House and Senate agree on many of the national security-related agencies that should receive stimulus funding. The Defense...

Terms for Auto Bailout Released

The Treasury Department just released terms for the bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler.  Taxpayers for Common Sense staff will be...

Analysis of Energy Tax Provisions Included in the Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

The following is a summary of the non-consumer energy tax breaks included in H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008....

GAO: More than $49 Million in Potentially Ineligible Farm Payments

Just months after a new multi-billion dollar five year farm bill was passed into law, a federal watchdog reports that individuals who are...

Treasury Releases Report on Bailout Expenditures

The Treasury Department has released its first bailout “transaction report,” which documents  where $125 billion of the $700 billion in...

Senate Passes Bailout bill

The Senate passed the bailout bill 74-25 this evening. Here is the rollcall for the vote. This is what we had to say about the Senate...

Bailout Bill and Related Resources

The latest version of the bailout bill was just released.  Read it here. Additional resources (we're adding more as we find them, so...

Coal-to-Liquid Earmarks DOD Appropriations

Today the House passed a Continuing Resolution and a minibus that included the final FY09 Defense spending bill, which had 6 earmarks for...

Government Bailouts Top $1 Trillion in 2008

Update--September 23 Our transparency in government allies at Open CRS obtained a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report The Cost...

Draft Language of the Bailout Plans

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has drafted a replacement legislative package to the Administration's proposed bailout plan. With a quick glance...

Engineering Boondoggles

While Washington is wringing its hands about the automatic across-the-board budget cuts known as...