Beware 'The Debt Bomb'

WASHINGTON — In his new book about the nation's fiscal problems, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn says he would rather work with Democrats in Congress than Chinese communists “who will one day force our hand” if government spending is not controlled.
The senator's book, “The Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop Washington from Bankrupting America,” was released Tuesday. It warns of an economic collapse due to the U.S. government's mounting debt and financial obligations and says members of both parties must compromise, particularly on entitlements like Medicare and Social Security, to avoid catastrophe.
Coburn, R-Muskogee, blames Democrats and Republicans for the current fiscal situation and for not reaching a comprehensive debt deal last year.

Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-sen.-tom-coburns-new-book-warns-of-nations-debt-bomb/article/3667311#ixzz1tjswGNZl

Coburn Releases 'Wastebook' Detailing More Than $6.5 Billion in 'Unnecessary' Spending

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn on Tuesday released his annual "Wastebook" highlighting what he's labeled some of the government's most wasteful spending items, including $113,000 for a video game preservation center and $765,000 to subsidize "pancakes for yuppies" in Washington. 

Coburn, a Republican who is known around Washington as "Dr. No" for his opposition to excess spending, said in a press release Tuesday that his "Wastebook 2011" details the "most egregious ways your taxpayer dollars were wasted" -- items he claims total more than $6.5 billion in "unnecessary" spending.

"Video games, robot dragons, Christmas trees, and magic museums. This is not a Christmas wish list, these are just some of the ways the federal government spent your tax dollars," Coburn said in a statement.

Among the items on Coburn's list include $10 million for a remake of "Sesame Street" for Pakistan and $764,825 to examine how college students use mobile devices for social networking.

The "Wastebook" also claims $550,000 was spent for a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as $48,700 for a festival promoting Hawaii's chocolate industry.

"Instead of cutting wasteful spending, nearly $2.5 billion was added each day in 2011 to our national debt, which now exceeds $15 trillion," Coburn said.

Coburn noted that nearly $1 million went to projects in his own state, including nearly $400,000 for the state's agriculture department to study how different colors on shade cloths affect vegetable growth.
Read Coburn's Wastebook 2011 report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/20/coburn-releases-wastebook-detailing-more-than-65-billion-in-unnecessary/#ixzz1h81txmn2

Your Tax Dollars Subsidizing Scottie Pippin, Ted Turner, and Jon Bon Jovi ???

If ever there was a populist blueprint for deficit reduction, this has got to be it.

Each year, millionaires are soaking the government, not illegally, for some $30 billion in benefits from tax giveaways and loan programs, according to a report by Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

The Republican senator, a staunch fiscal hawk and equal opportunity scourge of government waste and abuse, released "Subsidies of the Rich and Famous" Monday to little fanfare, saying in an e-mailed statement, "This welfare for the well-off - costing billions of dollars a year - is being paid for with the taxes of the less fortunate, many who are working two jobs just to make ends meet, and IOUs to be paid off by future generations."

The eye-popping findings in the 36-page report include some eye-catching names, like former NBA star Scottie Pippen and billionaire media mogul Ted Turner, both of whom received farm subsidies courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. Singer Jon Bon Jovi paid property taxes of only $100 last year on a plot of land he used to raise bees. Iconic crooner Bruce Springsteen also got in on the farm subsidy action, for property he leases to an organic farmer. And Millionaire composer-producer Quincy Jones is even singled out for receiving a $25,000 award from the federally-funded National Endowment for the Arts.

Coburn's investigation found that from 2003 to 2009, millionaires received over $316 million in farm program payments. In one four-year period alone, the senator's staff, reviewing tax returns found that fully 78 percent of recipients listed a city as their primary address, not exactly a location for a farm.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture regularly pays millionaires, the report found, to conserve land and protect endangered species, waving income caps for government subsidies in current law. In the past two years, Coburn's staff counted more than $89 million paid out, as a result of this waiver authority.

The report lists two examples: "A founder and former executive of an insurance company improperly received more than $300,000 in farm program payments in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006; and a part-owner of a professional sports franchise received total of more than $200,000 in farm program payments in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006."

"The government's social safety net, which has long existed to catch those who are down and help them get back up, is now being used as a hammock by some millionaires, some who are paying less taxes than average middle class families," Coburn said.

Parents are likely to be outraged when they read about millionaires taking advantage of a Department of Education low-interest loan program. Over the past four years, the average loan paid out through one program to wealthy families was $19,405. A total of more than $16 million went to rich students. Not only that, but those making more than $1 million in their adjusted gross income, from 2007 to 2009, according to the Coburn report, saved $18 million through childcare tax credits.

Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/11/14/your-tax-dollars-subsidizing-scottie-pippin-ted-turner-and-jon-bon-jovi#ixzz1djY1uYn0