CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE 08/31/2015

Porker of the Month: IRS Commissioner John Koskinen

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen Porker of the Month for his long litany of incompetence and obstruction as head of the reviled agency.  Confirmed as commissioner on December 20, 2013, shortly after the exposure of the Lois Lerner political targeting scandal, Koskinen repeatedly stonewalled members of Congress in the search for Ms. Lerner’s emails, overseeing an IRS that did not perform an in-depth search for the emails and erased backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 emails from Lerner.  Beyond the scandal, the IRS is not able to discharge basic functions with Koskinen at the helm.  For example, IRS officials hung up on 8.8 million Americans who called their help line during the 2014 tax filing season, and on August 17, The Washington Post reported that a cyberattack on the agency that occurred earlier this year exposed the tax return information of an estimated 610,000 Americans and was “far more widespread than the Internal Revenue Service first disclosed.”  For his disastrous tenure as head of the IRS, CAGW names IRS Commissioner Koskinen the August Porker of the Month. Read more about the Porker of the Month.

CCAGW Unveils Ratings for 2016 Presidential Candidates

Just prior to the first presidential debate on August 6, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) released the lifetime ratings of each declared 2016 presidential candidate who served in Congress, as chronicled by its annual Congressional Ratings.  Under CCAGW’s rating categories, every Democratic candidate is “Hostile” (excluding Lincoln Chafee, who was an elected Republican senator but is running as a Democrat), and all Republicans, except Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, are “Taxpayer Heroes.”  The highest ratings belong to the three most recently-elected senators – Ted Cruz at 99 percent and Rand Paul and Marco Rubio at 95 percent.  “While there are many ways to evaluate candidates and the Ratings cover only those who served in Congress, CCAGW’s lifetime ratings are a valuable tool for voters during the long race for president,” noted CCAGW President Tom Schatz.  See a full list of the 2016 presidential contenders’ CCAGW lifetime ratings.

Taxpayer Victory: Auction Cheats Must Repay $3.3 Billion

CAGW applauded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its unanimous ruling this month that two companies that improperly attempted to obtain $3.3 billion in discounts for spectrum must reimburse taxpayers. During January’s spectrum auction for wireless broadband, Northstar Wireless, LLC and SNR Wireless LicenseCo, LLC masqueraded as small businesses to qualify for a 25 percent reduction in their bids.  As a result, their winning bids of $13.3 billion were discounted by a total of $3.3 billion.  However, the FCC concluded that they should not have received the discount since DISH Networks owns 85 percent of the two companies.  CAGW had joined with five other organizations in calling for the FCC to find that the companies were not eligible for the discount, and CAGW President Tom Schatz welcomed the ruling, commenting,  “The FCC auctions are a valuable method to increase the availability of spectrum, increase innovation, and raise money for taxpayers.  The process must meet the highest standards of fairness and integrity.” Read more about this victory for taxpayers.

CCAGW Gives Hillary Clinton’s College Plan an “F”

After reading Hillary Clinton’s student loan plan this month, CCAGW’s fiscal policy staff has given her a failing grade.  Mrs. Clinton’s financially outlandish plan, which would spend $350 billion, would hand out federal tax dollars to states in exchange for “no loan” tuition at four-year universities and make two-year community colleges free.  The money would come from the same source as every one of Mrs. Clinton’s new spending programs:  higher taxes on the allegedly wealthiest Americans.  “Higher education costs are the result of a vicious financial cycle,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. “Pumping more money into the system without reforms that could help mitigate and lower costs will only make the problem worse.  The Clinton plan is not based in fiscal reality.” Read more about Hillary Clinton’s student loan plan.