Weekly Wastebasket

Our weekly reality-check for federal spending.

Industrious Defenders

July 12, 2012 | Budget & Tax , National Security

If House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) has his way, House members will be distracted by the sideshow in his... Read More

Watching the Dollars Go By

July 05, 2012 | Agriculture , Budget & Tax

Going to the beach this summer – whether it was for the 4th of July or an August vacation – you might want to keep an eye out for some of... Read More

Seeking Senator Scissorhands

When you’re in a hole, you stop digging. And when you’ve got a $1.3 trillion deficit and $15.7 trillion debt, you gotta get cuttin’.... Read More

Thinking Outside the MOX

June 21, 2012 | Energy , National Security

Remember your parents telling you that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is? Well, that principle applies equally to... Read More

Thou Shale Not Waste

June 14, 2012 | Energy , Natural Resources

Last week the House of Representatives voted on the fiscal year 2013 Energy and Water spending bill. The $32.1 billion bill funds several... Read More

Much Ado About Earmarks

June 07, 2012 | Earmarks & Appropriations

If you hear some lawmakers tell it, earmarks made Washington a well-oiled machine. As special interest spending provisions that were... Read More

Meeting the Earmark Challenge

May 31, 2012 | Earmarks & Appropriations

Challenges often bring out the best or worst in people. Public policy challenges do the same thing to lawmakers. The current moratorium... Read More

Profiting from Entitlements

May 23, 2012 | Agriculture

As farmers finish the last of their spring plantings, lawmakers on the Agriculture Committees are scrambling to sow the seeds for costly... Read More

Time to U-Turn USEC

May 17, 2012 | Energy , National Security

The United States Enrichment Company (USEC) received bad news this week in the form of a delisting notice from the New York Stock... Read More

A Farewell to Alms

May 10, 2012 | Budget & Tax , Energy

  Last year, the top six oil companies in the U.S. made $148.7 billion in profits. That works out to about $407 million a day, $17... Read More

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