Category: Federal issues
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More P3s Coming. Taxpayers, Hang onto Your Wallets
by Randy Salzman The history of American transportation “public private partnerships” indicates that virtually all P3 shell companies go bankrupt before paying back federal loans and the “private activity bonds” which they sold to finance part of the debt. When these firms go bankrupt, who loses? Taxpayers. We get stuck (1) with paying back the…
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Reminder: Where the Defense Dollars Are Spent
Just to remind people how heavily dependent Virginia is on defense spending… This graphic comes from the Defense Department’s Office of Economic Adjustment. The numbers include defense spending only, not spending by homeland security or intelligence agencies. (Hat tip: Steve Haner.) Earlier this week I quoted Newt Gingrich as saying that the Pentagon bureaucracy is…
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“It’s Not about Money. It’s about New Thinking.”
While nitwits in the national media stumble over themselves covering the president-elect’s latest tweets — Newt Gringrich calls them “rabbits” sent out to distract the news hounds — important things are taking place outside of public view. You can get a sense of the new thinking about to overwhelm Washington, D.C., in comments that the former…
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More Information, Please, about Oceana’s New Solar Facility
by James A. Bacon The Department of the Navy is collaborating with Dominion Virginia Power and the Commonwealth of Virginia to build a 21-megawatt solar energy facility at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach. The 100-acre facility, housing 179,0000 solar panels and scheduled for completion in late 2017, will supply enough electricity at peak…
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Virginia Economic Growth Still a Struggle
Straws in the wind regarding Northern Virginia’s business climate: Budget sequestration may be a thing of the past, but the federal budget squeeze is not. In her latest Richmond Times-Dispatch column, economist Chris Chmura notes that in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2015, federal spending on contracts fell 4.4% — some $2.4 billion — in…
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The Hidden Risk in Money Market Funds, and What It Means for Virginia
by James A. Bacon I’m sure many readers are tired of hearing my jeremiads about excess debt, fiscal unsustainability, and the necessity of re-engineering Virginia institutions to survive the inevitable reckoning. Well, too bad. The global economy is severely out of balance, Virginia is part of that economy, and we will suffer the consequences when the…
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Republicans and Leftists Are Outraged, Outraged, I Tell You
by James A. Bacon Here’s what I missed in yesterday’s quickie post about Governor Terry McAuliffe’s plan to convene a clean energy task force: Both Republicans and leftist environmental groups are attacking the move, though for opposite reasons. Republican legislators see the initiative as an end run around the state budget, which specifically prohibits any spending…
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Boomergeddon Update: Medicare HI
by James A. Bacon The Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, one of the four major components of the Medicare program, will run out of money in 2028 — two years earlier than previously projected. That appraisal comes from the Medicare Board of Trustees, which, the last time I checked, is not funded by the Koch Brothers. The news…
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Fed Theft Update: $749 Billion from Bank Depositors
Federal Reserve Bank suppression of interest rates has cost bank depositors $749 billion in interest income on savings accounts, CDs, and money market accounts over the past six years, according to Richard Barrington with MoneyRates.com. Quantitative Easing has made possible one of the greatest redistributions of wealth in United States history. Unlike with taxes, which…
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Your Federal Tax Dollars at Work
And I thought the City of Richmond was incompetent for its inability to close out its financial books in a timely manner! Heed this opinion from the federal Government Accountability Organization (GAO) on Uncle Sam’s financial statements for 2014 and 2015: “Certain material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of…
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Radiation, Hormesis and Nuclear Power
by James A. Bacon I belong to a generation that grew up with a fear of nuclear war, fall-out and slow, agonizing death by radiation poisoning. We’d seen the horrors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We lived through the scare of Three Mile Island and, years later, had our fears reinforced by catastrophes at Chernobyl and Fukushima.…
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The Tragic Political Economy of Higher Ed
by James A. Bacon Lynchburg College President Kenneth Garren was sipping wine at a reception last year when he bumped into Senator Mark Warner. He button-holed the senator and urged him to oppose an Obama administration plan to create a ratings system for U.S. colleges and universities. Two months later, under pressure from Garren and…
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How the Feds Run Virginia’s Colleges and Universities Now
by James A. Bacon A new Vanderbilt University study sheds light on the relentless increase in costs at U.S. colleges and universities: government regulation. In a detailed study of 13 institutions, Vanderbilt and the Boston Consulting Group found that compliance with federal regulations ranges between 3% and 11%, depending upon the institution, with a median cost…
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Pell Grants: Soaking Taxpayers and Creating Debt Slaves?
by James A. Bacon Earlier this month the Hechinger Report found that a large percentage of the beneficiaries of federal Pell grants to students from low-income families never graduate. The study also found that the federal government, despite spending $300 billion on the program since 2000, doesn’t keep track. The feds have doubled their commitment to…
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More Sequestration Pain for Virginia
by James A. Bacon The pain of federal budget sequestration cuts in Virginia is not yet over. Look what The Washington Post reports today: According to the Defense Department research, things are likely to worsen over the next four years. From 2010 to 2012, Virginia experienced $9.8 billion in defense cuts, with the vast majority…