By Chris Freind One. Fourteen. Two. Zero. Here’s what those digits represent: One: Pennsylvania’s rank for states with the worst bridges. Fourteen: Length in feet of a local bridge on a vital street, closed a year ago due to its deteriorating condition. Two: Years. The time it will take to re-open that bridge, if we’re really, really lucky. Zero: The [...]

By Robert Romano — The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has overpaid the earned income tax credit by at least $110.8 billion since 2000, according to a recent Treasury Department inspector general report. That is more than double the $53 billion of sequester cuts expected in 2013 totaling less than 2 percent of outlays, and puts the lie to those who [...]

NRD Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared at The Washington Examiner. By Nathan Mehrens — Around $156 million, that’s how much taxpayers spent in 2011 on federal employees who did no federal work at all. These aren’t people who fail to perform the work assigned to them, but rather employees who are not assigned any federal work at all. Shocked? [...]

Applying for benefits? Veterans often wait much longer for assistance than those requesting Medicaid- and often by a mile. Sources: Medicaid Eligibility Determinations: http://www.gao.gov/assets/650/649788.pdf Veterans Affairs Averages: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/612900-budget-performance-split.html

By Nathan Mehrens — Given the current federal budget situation, sequester, and everything that goes with it, now is a great opportunity to take a very hard look at the spending practices of federal agencies.  There is no shortage of areas where cuts could be made without affecting the agency’s mission. One such area is perks that serve no measurable [...]

By Rick Manning – Five and a half days worth of government spending is all that would be cut if the sequester goes into effect on March 1. Having to eliminate five and a half days of spending is hardly the calamity that is coming out of every federal government agency and the White House at a steady clip. The [...]

By Bill Wilson – The next major budget battle in Washington, D.C. is the $85 billion of sequestration cuts to budgeting authority due to take effect on March 1. Originally agreed to in August 2011 in exchange for increasing the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion, sequestration was supposed to have accounted for $109 billion of average, annual cuts. But then [...]

By Bill Wilson — Sequester was originally supposed to be for $109 billion, but since then these cuts to budget authority have already been reduced to $85 billion during the fiscal cliff negotiations. They must not be reduced any further.  The House can attempt to find offsetting cuts for defense, but before they do so, they ought to take a [...]

By Robert Romano — On Jan. 15, the House of Representatives easily passed legislation costing more than $50 billion legislation that would, in part, fund disaster relief for communities deeply affected by Hurricane Sandy. The trouble is that the House had an opportunity to pay for the core $17 billion for disaster assistance — but took a pass. An amendment [...]

By Bill Wilson — It is disheartening and sad to see the House Rules Committee block many amendments that would have trimmed billions of pork from the hurricane disaster relief bill that had nothing to do with Hurricane Sandy. That said, two amendments that did manage to get through the rules process offered by Representatives Mick Mulvaney and Rob Bishop [...]