Congress Preaches Spending Cuts While Allowing Its Own Budget to Explode by 38 Percent Since 2014

While many lawmakers have preached for years the need for federal spending cuts, the amount of taxpayer money that Congress spends on its own operations has swelled 38% since FY2014 from $4.3 billion to $6.9 billion this year, according to a Just the News review of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports on annual federal budgets. 

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Carhartt to Expand in Michigan with Nearly $1 Million of Taxpayer Help

Michigan-based outdoor and recreation clothier Carhartt was granted $937,500 of taxpayer money to expand its facilities in Dearborn.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says the Michigan Economic Development Corp. investment will create 125 new jobs and spark a $4.67 million capital investment.

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Commentary: An American Tradition Is Chronic Anti-Poverty Waste via the Federal-to-Local Distribution Pipeline

For six years, beginning in 2014, the accounting firm for the Southeast Alabama Community Action Partnership warned administrators that the organization was doing a poor job of managing the millions of dollars in taxpayer money it received annually for its poverty-reduction work, including home energy assistance and foster grandparenting.  

In 2018, a longtime employee filed a federal complaint alleging that the group spent public money profligately on extravagant travel and for other unauthorized purposes, and that it retaliated against employees who questioned its financial practices. 

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Some Michigan Schools Keep Mum on COVID Relief Spending

Theoretically, taxpayers should be able to see how Michigan schools are spending $5.7 billion of taxpayer money to recover from COVID-19-related learning loss.

But an investigation by The Center Square through more than 80 records requests to schools statewide shows how difficult it can be to obtain itemized COVID spending records. Many schools never responded to an initial Freedom of Information Act request.

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