Weekly Wastebasket

Our weekly reality-check for federal spending.

Won’t Get Duped Again

March 04, 2011 | Agriculture , Budget & Tax , Energy

We’re going to assign some required reading for lawmakers searching for money-saving ideas as they tackle the upcoming budget bills. The... Read More

Shutdown Shenanigans

February 25, 2011 | Budget & Tax

House and Senate majorities are engaged in a game of budgetary chicken, hurtling the federal government toward a possible shutdown in a... Read More

High Reward From Targeting High Risk

February 18, 2011 | Budget & Tax , Energy

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton supposedly observed “because that’s where the money is.” Not a bad maxim, and for a... Read More

Butcher Block Budgeting

February 11, 2011 | Budget & Tax

More than a third of the way through fiscal year 2011, and we’re finally getting to the end game on finalizing the federal spending... Read More

Payback Time

February 04, 2011 | National Security

Now that the sale of American weapons to foreign governments is in the news again, we’re reminded of the billions of dollars taxpayers... Read More

The Big Budget Chill

January 28, 2011 | Budget & Tax

Considering all the talk about freezes around town, you would think we were having a record cold snap in D.C. Instead it’s a flurry of... Read More

Heckling the Budget Ref

January 20, 2011 | Budget & Tax

Everybody knows that for competitive sports to be fair, you have to have an impartial referee. Couple that with the notion that politics... Read More

50 Years of the Ike “Complex”

January 14, 2011 | Budget & Tax , National Security

Monday will mark the 50th anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s unfortunately prescient and unheeded warning to the American... Read More

Budget Cut Smorgasbord

The new House Republican majority has talked a lot about cutting spending. General comments like: rolling spending back to fiscal year... Read More

Appropriating the Appropriations Committee

December 23, 2010 | Budget & Tax

With 60 members, the House Appropriations Committee has been one of the largest committees in Congress and one of the most coveted... Read More

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