Biden Poured $230 Million Into Broken Gaza Pier
July 15, 2024
Topline: Officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may have watched one too many Steven Spielberg movies. They’ve determined that waterfront areas around the country are all going to need accommodate bigger boats, and they’re doling out $18 million of taxpayer money to make it happen.
Key facts: State recreation agencies can now apply for funds to help parks build “boating infrastructure facilities” for “vessels at least 26 feet long that are operated … primarily for pleasure,” according to two new grant notices.
A 26-foot boat is classified as a yacht by the National Marine Manufacturing Association.
Six states have already received the maximum award of $1.5 million so far this year, with three more receiving just a few hundred dollars less than that.
States are required to match at least 25% of the funds. Funds can also be used to create educational materials about boating.
The Boating Infrastructure Grant program began in 1998. Since being reauthorized by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in late 2021, it has spent $121 million in combined federal and state funds.
The program’s webpage boasts that it serves vital functions like “promoting awareness” of boats and “strengthening local community ties” between boaters and manufacturers.
There are 11 million recreational boats in the U.S., of which 596,000 are at least 26 feet long, according to the grant notice.
The grants are funded through the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, which is made up of taxes on boats and fishing equipment and import duties. It’s worth an average of $713 million annually.
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Summary: A 26-foot vessel is indeed impressive, but it still probably couldn’t fit all the cash the government is spending on sailing the seas.
Biden’s Staff Is the Largest Since Nixon
July 16, 2024
Topline: The White House employed 565 people this year at a cost of $60.8 million, according to a new report from OpenTheBooks.com.
Richard Nixon was the first president to employ more than 500 staffers and President Joseph Biden has set a new unfortunate record. Donald Trump employed 413 people in the last year of his presidency, and Barack Obama had 468 staffers.
Key facts: Biden’s staff turnover rate has now reached 77% since he took office; only 125 of the 560 people who worked in the White House in 2021 are still there.
There was a 43% turnover rate in the last year, as 225 people who were on the payroll in fiscal year 2023 are gone.
Biden employs 106 “special assistants to the president” working on topics like gun violence and global gender policy and earning between $120,000 and $140,000. He also still has seven staffers with “pandemic response” in their title, even though he declared the pandemic “over” in September 2022.
Men slightly outearn women in the White House. There are 222 male staffers making an average of $115,719 and 343 women earning an average of $101,511.
The payroll also includes 24 people working for First Lady Jill Biden at a cost of $2.5 million. She employed only eight people in fiscal year 2022.
Jill Biden has her own foreign policy advisor, multiple speechwriters, a “trip director” and even an “advisor to the senior advisor to the First Lady.”
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Background: Biden’s advisors include leaders with ties to prior administrations and politically controversial initiatives.
Neera Tanden, a domestic policy advisor earning $180,000, was previously Biden’s choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget. She withdrew her candidacy after highly partisan social media posts turned some senators against her.
Jake Sullivan, Biden's National Security Advisor, who also makes $180,000, helped negotiate the Iran deal under Obama. He was also a deputy chief of staff to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Summary: The federal bureaucracy has expanded in several ways under Biden, and his record payroll is just one small example.
Federal Deficit Projection Up 27% Since February
July 17, 2024
Topline: The Congressional Budget Office projects that the federal government will have a budget deficit of $1.9 trillion this year, $400 billion more than was projected in February.
Key facts: The CBO named four factors that contributed to the $400 billion increase.
Since February, President Biden’s administration has made or proposed changes to its student loan forgiveness policy that the CBO estimates will cost the federal government an extra $145 billion. If Biden’s plan from April to expand loan forgiveness is enacted, that projection rises to $211 billion; it falls to $79 billion if not.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is also taking longer than expected to get back the money it loaned to avert bank failures last year, adding $70 billion to the deficit.
New laws passed since February added another $60 billion in expenditures, and projected Medicaid spending has risen by $50 billion.
The CBO now expects the total federal deficit over the next 10 years to be $22.1 trillion. That’s an average of $2.2 trillion per year; the deficit has only ever been that high during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The deficit was $1.7 trillion last year.
Each year that the federal budget sits at a deficit — meaning the government spent more money than it earned — increases our national debt, which currently sits at $34.7 trillion.
That means interest payments on the debt are also expected to reach historic highs. Every year from 2025 to 2034, the CBO expects the U.S. to spend at least 3.4% of its gross domestic product on interest. That hasn’t happened in any year since at least 1940.
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Background: The CBO says more than half of the projected increase in federal spending over the next decade will go toward Social Security and health programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which will take up 68% of the federal budget by 2034 unless changes are made.
OpenTheBooks’ previous analysis of government projections for these programs revealed an even darker long-term forecast: Social Security and Medicare will be depleted by 2041 and eventually be underfunded by $175.3 trillion under current policy.
Few, if any, current politicians are willing to take on the publicly-toxic challenge of reducing future Social Security benefits, but that may soon be inevitable.
Summary: The time is now for our federal government to curb spending and get serious about retaking control of our economic future.
Throwback Thursday: 'Bike Showers' Took Money from Bridge Repairs
July 18, 2024
Throwback Thursday!
Topline: Given the choice between repairing dangerous bridges or opening a café for bike riders, most taxpayers would probably choose the first option.
But in 2008, the federal government decided it would rather spend $560,000 on the Freewheel Midtown Bike Center in Minneapolis, Minn. then on saving the nation’s bridge repair fund from bankruptcy — even though a bridge three miles away from the bike center had just collapsed.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.
Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname "Dr. No" by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn't stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.
Coburn's Wastebook 2008 included 65 examples of outrageous spending worth more than $1.3 billion, including the $812,000 in 2024 dollars spent on the bike center.
Key facts: When the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed on Aug. 1, 2007, killing 14, the government acted swiftly. A bipartisan group allocated $234 million to build a replacement bridge that opened at the end of 2008.
The tragedy did not teach officials an obvious lesson in allocating resources wisely. The Federal Highway Trust Fund, used to repair deteriorating bridges, was almost out of money. But six days after the I-35W collapse, the Senate voted 80-18 against fixing bridges and roads by taking money away from bike paths.
That opened the door for the Freewheel bike center to open in May 2008 within walking distance of the ruined bridge.
The rest stop featured two kinds of showers: the normal kind and “bike showers” for cleaning equipment. Other amenities included a “bike valet” with indoor parking and a barista serving mixed drinks.
In September 2008, the Department of Transportation announced that the Federal Highway Trust Fund was bankrupt.
Since then the government has been forced to transfer $275 billion from other sources to keep the fund solvent.
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Summary: Public money should be used to address life-threatening issues before putting the money toward valet parking.
Architect of the Capitol Bungled Contract Management
July 19, 2024
Topline: Congress amended federal law this year to give increased oversight to the Architect of the Capitol agency following allegations against its former director.
Now, it turns out the office isn’t only having issues among its employees; it also lacks proper oversight of outside the construction companies it hires to work on Capitol Hill.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that the Architect of the Capitol’s office is organized in a way that “directly inhibits” oversight of contractors and may not have the “independence, support, and visibility needed to ensure that it can carry out its responsibilities.”
Key facts: The Architect’s office, which builds and maintains federal offices in Washington, hires contractors for maintenance of everything from fountains to “historically significant doors.” The office had 848 active contracts worth nearly $2 billion as of August 2023.
The Architect appoints special employees to award contracts, but the GAO says the agency “lacks the ability to accurately track” whether those employees have been properly trained.
The employees are also not required to be trained in federal spending laws. Only two of the eight employees interviewed by the GAO said they took a course on appropriations law. Both said it was the most important class they took.
The employees are not given any specific rules for choosing contractors, which the GAO says could cause inexperienced or unqualified companies to be hired for construction projects.
The issues don’t end once the contracts are signed.
The Architect of the Capitol is required to audit contractors twice a year and track their spending, but not all employees are actually doing so, the report found..
The Architect’s office also refused to provide some construction companies with non-classified information they needed to do their jobs, citing “national security concerns.”
Thirty percent of the contractors said their decisions were overruled by federal employees, which the GAO says defeats the purpose of hiring outside companies to work on Capitol Hill.
Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Background: Congress hired Thomas Austin as the new Architect of the Capitol in February. He replaced Brett Blanton, a Donald Trump appointee who was fired by President Biden last year after an inspector general report exposed several ethical violations.
It’s the first time Congress has chosen its own Architect. The president used to be in charge of hiring and firing the Architect, but the process was changed this year after some lawmakers were frustrated at how long it took Biden to fire Blanton.
Summary: If the government is going to bring in outside companies to work on some of the nation’s most important buildings, they need to monitor the process more closely.
The #WasteOfTheDay is presented by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.