CAGW Releases October WasteWatcher.

A Monthly Dispatch From Citizens Against Government Waste

WASHINGTON -- Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW):

ObamaCare Challenges Move Ahead in Court By Erica Gordon Over the past two years, taxpayers have watched the national debt climb to a frightening $13.7 trillion as Congress and President Obama massively enlarged the size and scope of the federal government against the will of the people. Americans have simply had enough of the bailouts, tax hikes, earmarks, onerous regulations, and seemingly endless number of "jobs" bills. The passage of President Obama's landmark healthcare legislation, however, was perhaps most symbolic of Washington's reckless and profligate behaviorO

Extending Bush Era Tax Cuts Will Aid the Economic Recovery By MacMillin Slobodien One of the more spirited public policy debates that has unfolded leading into the midterm elections has been what Congress should do with the Bush-era tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of this year. President Obama has stated he favors only extending tax cuts for the middle class and letting others expire, while businesses, Republicans, moderate Democrats, and taxpayer advocates maintain that anything other than a full extension amounts to a tax increase that will only prolong the nation's current economic woesO

Port Earmark Divides South Carolina Senators By Sean Kennedy Citing the need to modernize the Port of Charleston, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) submitted a $400,000 earmark to the Senate version of the fiscal year 2011 Energy and Water Appropriations Act to study the port's potential deepening. However, the Senate Appropriations Committee rejected the projectO

Privacy Problems By David Williams Privacy may mean different things to different people, but at a certain level everybody wants their privacy protected. The advent and growth of the Internet has greatly amplified privacy issues. As with every other subject that comes to the forefront of the American psyche, Congress is gearing up to offer legislation to "protect privacy." As usual, this means Congress could do more harm than goodO

Pork on Life Support: Time to Pull the Plug By Lauren Hartman Save America's Treasures was one of the 60 programs proposed for elimination in President Obama's 2011 Terminations, Reductions, and Savings report. Released in February 2010, the report recommended the elimination of the program because it "has not demonstrated how it contributes to nationwide historic preservation goals."O

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.