It’s the Fourth of July weekend and a time to relax and celebrate. As budget wonks, however, we can’t help but reflect on the costs behind some of this weekend’s more popular festivities. Costs that are higher than necessary because of special interests in Washington. So, while we celebrate our nation’s independence here are a few ways to make the Fourth just a bit more fiscally responsible while raining on some special interests’ parade.

Old Glory – We’ve explained in the past the Congressionally-mandated requirements that U.S. flags, uniforms, tents, and tarpaulins must be manufactured in the United States with entirely U.S. content (cloth, zippers, snaps, etc). This is the so-called “Berry Amendment” from the 1940s.  Lawmakers are still at it, sewing these protectionist provisions into the annual Pentagon spending bill. And we’ve also pointed out that laws like these add to the inflationary pressures on goods purchased by the U.S. military. Our position is that the best product, at the best value, is what our military service members deserve.

Pork (the not delicious kind) – That old chestnut we like to call “Coal to Kaiserslautern” is still out there, forcing the Pentagon to buy Pennsylvania coal and ship it to particular U.S. military bases in Germany. After we gave this decades-long program our “Golden Fleece” award, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) was briefly able to pull it off the menu. The program had been dished out by a so-called “General Provision” in the annual Pentagon spending bill, whipped up year after endless year. But lobbyists who grow fat off this provision, changed the recipe and were able to place the provision into statute. So, believe it or not, shipments of coal from the U.S. to coal-rich Germany have a permanent place on the wasteful spending menu.

Beaches – Anybody spending time on an ocean beach stands a good chance of watching their tax dollars wash into the ocean. That’s because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to mine sand offshore and pump it onto beaches. Many of these “beach nourishment” projects have been churning sand, and tax dollars, for 50 years. In 2014 Congress gave some of them a 15-year extension and the Corps is expected to pour more than $72 million more into this folly in 2022. It would be better to leave this chore to local communities that reap the benefits.

Fire up the Grill– Whether you light up hardwood charcoal or enjoy the convenience of propane, your grill could be sending tax dollars up in smoke. Taxpayers don’t get a fair return on the resources extracted from our public lands. The country is losing millions of dollars on federal timber production, particularly in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The Forest Service spends a lot more to administer timber sales than it receives in revenue from the sales – on average about $30 million per year. And oil and gas development isn’t any better. We released a new report last week highlighting the 86.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas wasted during production on federal lands in New Mexico alone over the last decade. That gas, which was vented or flared into the atmosphere, is mostly methane and was worth an estimated $320 million. For all that, the Department of Interior reports that only a paltry $20 million in royalties was collected on it. And that doesn’t even get to the issue of the liabilities and cost resulting from these wastes.

Barbecue –  As food inflation continues to eat at your budget, federal farm subsidies pour gasoline on the fire. To the tune of $9.5 billion this year, taxpayers subsidize highly generous insurance on everything from almonds to oysters. Worse yet, since 2018 lawmakers have responded to hurricanes, floods, and other insurance covering events by passing annual “emergency” farm income subsidies. This now $16 billion pot of funds is in addition to the $30 billion in COVID-19 assistance businesses involved in farming received, despite the ag sector suffering from record income in 2020. Now lawmakers debating a farm bill reauthorization are debating how to make the programs even costlier. It makes federal farm policy really hard to swallow.

Bridges and Byways – Whether traveling near or far, you’re likely to run into some congestion. Some of this could be from disruptions caused by road and bridge projects funded by the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (aka infrastructure bill) enacted last November. While the president looked to use the IIJA to jumpstart infrastructure projects, he’s now proposing to stall out the Highway Trust Fund with a three-month gas tax holiday. The federal gas tax has been stuck at 18.4 cents per-gallon for nearly 30 years. It falls so far short of covering highway costs that more than $270 billion has been transferred from the general treasury. Suspending the gas tax would put a few bucks in peoples’ pockets and be a death knell to the Trust Fund. Plus a “temporary” tax decrease that would expire weeks before an election and right when farmers increase their fuel usage at harvest and businesses are stocking up for the holiday shopping season? This “holiday” sounds more like a permanent hiatus.

Enjoy your 4^th! Happy birthday, America! But on the 5^th join us to rein in the hangover of wasteful spending, programs, and policies.