$240,000 Round Trip Flight

Former Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly spent nearly a quarter million dollars on a round-trip flight to Guam that ended in Modly’s resignation. Click here for the full report.

$70,000 to send hip-hop stars to India for cultural understanding

Just The News is reporting that the State Department is funding a $70,000 program called “Bridging Cultures Through Hip-Hop”. The goal of the project is to “explore the commonalities and differences between India and the United States through this influential music genre,” according to a State Department grant description. Click here for complete article.

Use Your PC To Fight COVID-19

Folding@home uses distributed computing to do disease research. It has been around for years, but has recently turned its attention to the COVID-19 virus. You can help in the fight by downloading their program to your personal computer and letting it run in the background. You can choose to run it full time or just when the computer is idle. You can also choose how much power you wish to use. For more information, click here.

Profiles in Corruption

If you have wondered why politicians spend huge amounts of money to run for office, then Peter Schweizer's "Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America's Progressive Elite" is a must read.

Here's a short video explaining one way politicians abuse their power...

$3.06 Million Impeachment

According to an estimate from the Heritage Foundation in December, the Democrat-led House of Representatives inquiry, and eventual impeachment of Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on Dec. 18, cost taxpayers an estimated $3.06 million (this figure doesn't include the Senate trial).

That price tag includes the money spent on the salaries of 106 congressional staffers from the House Intelligence Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Reform Committee, who worked on impeachment from Sept. 24 to Dec. 13, according to the Daily Signal. It also included the estimated hourly fees of six attorneys who appeared during hearings.

Taxpayer-funded 'Political Attack Ad'

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that Democrats are essentially producing a taxpayer-funded campaign ad by impeaching President Trump ahead of the November election. Click here to read the full article.

California's New Dystopian Laws

If you are curious as to what would happen if Democrats ran the country, just look at California...

Trump Derangement Syndrome

Just when I think "Trump Derangement Syndrome" cannot get any worse, I read the following from the New York Post...

"Gov. Cuomo just vetoed a bill that would have allowed all federal judges to officiate at weddings in New York — saying he can’t stomach the idea that even some of the jurists might be President Trump appointees.

'I cannot in good conscience support legislation that would authorize such actions by federal judges who are appointed by this federal administration,' Cuomo said in a statement Friday as he shot down the bill — which was passed overwhelmingly by the Democratic-controlled state legislature."

Impeachment

In my opinion, any rational individual who is not suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome" would see the highly partisan/political impeachment of the president as a complete and utter sham. The question I would like to ask those individuals who support impeachment is: "if President Trump is as bad as you believe, then why is the country doing so well".

We are currently experiencing one of the best economies in my lifetime and it will only get better once the recent trade deals are implemented. Why would anyone want to risk losing it by going back to bigger government, higher taxes and more regulations? The only answer that makes sense to me is to regain political power at the expense of the American public.

Endless Investigations

Our government spends millions of taxpayer dollars on endless investigations but almost never holds anyone accountable. In my opinion, until someone is convicted and sent to prison, unelected bureaucrats will continue to do what is in their best interests, not the American public.

Waste Report

Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) recently published the fall edition of his Waste Report that details prodigal spending by the federal government. According to Paul's report, taxpayer spent $230 million on items ranging from $500,000 for an unused toilet and $22 million to bring Serbian cheese up to international standards.

EBT Card Abuse

On 18 different occasions in 2019, a Massachusetts Electronic Benefit Transfer card was swiped in Hawaii — including one that was used twice at a posh island resort where rooms fetch $800 a night, a report published Monday said. According to the Herald's report, in one instance an EBT card was used to buy a $700 round-trip ticket from the state to Hawaii.

The Boston Herald said it reviewed more than 2 million EBT expenditures over the past year and found thousands of out-of-state transactions that included withdrawals in Las Vegas and Alaska.

Home Improvements for a U.S. Ambassador

In case you missed it in the rapid-fire news cycle of the Trump impeachment inquiry, key witness and U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was revealed to have spent more than $1 million in taxpayer funds on renovations to his homes in Brussels and Washington, D.C. Far from the first administration official to be implicated for lavish personal spending, Sondland's purchases included $33,000 for Italian handmade furniture, $13,000 for a "split heat system Jacuzzi/swimming pool," $95,000 for the installation of an "outdoor living pod/pergola," and $100,000 for his family to relocate during the renovation process.

Crab and Lobster Splurge

Toward the end of each fiscal year, federal agencies tend to splurge on outside contractors in a frenzy to run out their budget, lest they come in under and lose the funds for the next year. Of the $544 billion allotted for outside contractors in 2018, for example, almost $97 billion was spent in September, the last month of the fiscal year. The Department of Defense was responsible for almost two-thirds of these last-minute expenditures, with the most newsworthy items being $2.1 million on games and toys, $490 million for furniture, and $4.6 million on crab and lobster tail.

Prime Cuts 2019

To help prevent this fiscal disaster from occurring, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is releasing Prime Cuts 2019, which has been published since 1993.  The 2019 version contains 620 recommendations that would save taxpayers $433.8 billion in the first year and $3.9 trillion over five years.