INDEX
- Wisconsin Gubernatorial Candidate Scott Walker Signs Taxpayer Protection Pledge
- Why Do We Get Health Insurance from Our Employers Anyway? (ASA Site »)
- The Enormous Price Tag of Government Run Healthcare (ASA Site »)
- Call for Sunshine Week: "Just Give Us The Earmark Data" (CFA Site »)
- PA-12 Special Election Update: Tim Burns Signs the Taxpayer Protection Pledge
- How Government Accounting Works
- ATRF Analysis: The Importance of International Tax Competition
- How Tax Preparation "Simplification" Will Lead to Tax Hikes
- GAO: Implementation of Coburn-Obama Still Lacking in Some Areas (CFA Site »)
Monday, March 15, 2010
- Latest Developments In The Fight To Stop A Govt Internet Takeover
- State of Illinois Launches Sunshine Portal (CFA Site »)
- China Buys Our Debt, We Give Them Renewable Energy Stimulus Jobs...Seems About Right
- ATR Urges Governor McDonnell to Sign Bill to Abolish State Run Tax Filing
- Saving the Sea Turtles...But at What Cost? (PRA Site »)
- Craig Miller Signs Taxpayer Protection Pledge in FL-24
- Next Week is Sunshine Week! (CFA Site »)
- The Economics of #StimulusFail
- Missouri Unions and Andy Stern on the Same Page: Raise Taxes (AWF Site »)
- Obamacare, Free Trade, & Our Economic Prosperity
Friday, March 12, 2010
- Rusty Bowers Signs the Taxpayer Protection Pledge for AZ-01 Race
- Ask Your Virginia Legislator to Vote "NO" on Any Budget Containing Higher Taxes
-
ATR Supports H.R. 4781, the
"Keeping American Businesses
Competitive Act of 2010" - Stimulus Dollars Are Taking You for A Ride - On Greyhound Buses (CFA Site »)
- Ronald Reagan Legacy Project Urges Naming of California High School After Reagan
- Democrats Attempt to Subvert Congress in Hopes of Carbon Regulation
- Economic Issues Dominate at the Bloggers Briefing
- Pushback Against EPA’s Attempts to Regulate Carbon Emissions Grows
- Minnesota Gubernatorial Candidate Running on a Platform of Tax Hikes
Thursday, March 11, 2010
- Michigan Jobs Ain't What They Used To Be...Unless You Work For The Government
- ATR and CFA Support Earmark Moratorium
- Voter Fraud in the Name of Tax Hikes
- Ballooning Deficits in Greece Foreshadowing Future for the U.S.? (ASA Site »)
- Green Jobs FAIL
- The Evergreen Tax and Fee Spree
- ATR Staffer Testifies Before U.S. House Energy & Commerce Select Committee
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
- The endemic rot in government run health care
- The Debt Panel's 800-lb. Gorilla: Why Andy Stern Stands Out
- The Left Agree: Obamacare Ushers In Their Radical Ideological Agenda
- We Ought Focus On Cutting Taxes & Spending, Not Deficits
- The Debt Panel's 800-lb. Gorilla (AWF Site »)
-
Does the Obamacare Investment Surtax
Apply to Capital Gains? - ATR Urges Opposition to Sen. Isakson Pension Bailout
- Taxpayers to Legislators: Clean Virginia Budget of Taxes
- ATR Supports the Georgia JOBS Act
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
- ATR Urges Utah Governor Herbert to Veto Tax Increase
- More on the VAT
- Public Sector Jobs
- How 550,000 jobs were destroyed by the minimum wage hike
- How Obamacare Will Hurt Poor Women & Children Most
- Federal Workers Make $11,000 More Than Private Sector Workers, and There’s More of Them (AWF Site »)
Monday, March 8, 2010
- Legislation Introduced to Put Ronald Reagan on the $50 Bill
- Pledge Signer Wins Illinois Republican Gubernatorial Primary
- "Net Neutrality" To Kill Jobs
- NY Supreme Court Votes to Evict Residents and Close Businesses (PRA Site »)
- California US Senate Candidates Square Off in First Debate
Friday, March 5, 2010
- ATR and CFA Support the Spending Limit Amendment
- Utah Representative Breaks Tax Pledge
- AWF Will Rate Vote on House Jobs Bill (AWF Site »)
- Energy Tax Hike Series: Use it or Lose it Tax
Thursday, March 4, 2010
- The reliability of spending "estimates"
- Utah State Senator Tries to Sweeten Tax Hike with Pork
- Obama Administration Makes Attempt to Seize Millions of Acres Across America (PRA Site »)
- More "Stimulus" Boondoggles - Social Engineering and Lobbying for Higher Taxes
- Energy Tax Hike Series: Raises Taxes on Tertiary Injectants
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
- Is This Reality or a Science Fiction Dystopia?
- Andy Stern Update: US Attorney Reviewing Case & Obama Appoints Stern to Debt Panel
- Texans: Do You Know Which Candidates Have Signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge?
- AWF Asks White House to Take Position on Andy Stern Investigation After Appointment to Debt Panel (AWF Site »)
- AWF Continues Andy Stern Investigation (AWF Site »)
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
- Energy Tax Hike Series: Superfund Tax Reinstated
Monday, March 1, 2010
“Stimulus” Fact of the Day: Taxpayers Taken for a Ride … on a Skateboard
From Sandra Fabry on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 12:54 PM
As the Providence Journal reports, the City of Pawtucket in Rhode Island will be using $550,000 in federal “stimulus” money to build a skateboarding park and renovate tennis and basketball courts at a local high school.
The city’s planning director explained that the money is for shovel-ready projects and the city is ready to go on these two projects. The funds will be made available through the federal “Community Development Block Program.”
The federal trillion dollar spending and debt package cleared Congress on Friday February 13, only hours after the conference report and explaining statements were made available for public scrutiny.
Taxpayer advocates wonder how this project ties in with the promise that the “stimulus” money would be spent on “critical” projects. Several weeks prior to passage of the package President Obama had stated: “What we need to do is examine: What are the projects where we're going to get the most bang for the buck? How are we going to make sure taxpayers are protected?” adding that “the days of just pork coming out of Congress as a strategy, those days are over.”
Says taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist:
We always felt that taxpayers were being taken for a ride with this ‘stimulus’ package, and now they are quite literally.That’s what you get when you hastily cobble together a massive spending package and then let nobody look at it before you vote on it – haste makes waste. I am sure taxpayers will appreciate knowing that the ‘must pass or else’ package focuses on such ‘critical’ projects like skateboarding parks, which are just known to spur economic growth, right?
For a pdf version of the press release click here.
Comments
And what is so wrong with building a skate park? Is it that children will will spend less time rotting in front of the TV? Or is it the extra exercise to combat the epidemic of obesity among American children? Or the reduced future health care costs associated with healthier future generations? Or are you just sore that some private investor isn't able to profit off of this particular economic activity that will benefit the kids who live in Pawtucket?
>> Michael Stevenson Wednesday, March 18, 2009 1:47 PM
As for spurring economic growth, I am sure there is a skateboard shop, and for that matter a manufacturer, smiling.
>> Michael Stevenson Wednesday, March 18, 2009 1:47 PM
Skateparks are a positive step towards empowering youth to feel as part of the community. Once treated as criminals for skating everywhere possible, skateparks give them the opportunity to do what they love, without vandalizing public and private property. Parents of skaters can now encourage and finance their child's interest knowing that they have a safe place to skate and that they will not be involved in illegal activity by doing so, and parents are taxpayers.
>> Robert Friday, March 20, 2009 7:57 PM