Free Republic

LONDON (AFP) – Britain's new coalition government suffered a blow Saturday when a high-profile finance minister, David Laws, resigned after just 18 days in the job following revelations over his expenses claims. Laws stepped down as Chief Secretary to the Treasury after the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported he had channelled more than 40,000 pounds (57,800 dollars, 47,100 euros) of taxpayers' money in rent to his long-term boyfriend. "I do not see how I can carry out my crucial work on the budget and spending review while I have to deal with the private and public implications of recent revelations," Laws...

President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is working on a plan for what it is calling “pro-growth” tax increases. The Commission is comprised of 18 members. Most are aged political hacks or washed-up bureaucrats. “Critics of government insist that taxes hurt growth,” said Alice Rivlin, a former White House budget director for President Jimmy Carter. “But we’re not convinced this is necessarily true. For example, every family has routine bills it must pay—groceries, rent, transportation. These costs don’t go down just because increased taxes have lowered a person’s take-home pay. It could be that a carefully constructed...

The "healthc-care reform" bills in Congress would hit 39 states hard with new expenses, by raising Medicaid eligibility above the cur rent income cutoffs. The only states that won't have to raise eligibility because of the Senate bill are Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Wisconsin (plus the District of Columbia). And the House bill would force even Massachusetts and Vermont to pay more. Hardest hit would be Texas ($2,750 million a year in extra state spending under the Senate bill), Pennsylvania ($1,450 million), California ($1,428 million) and Florida ($909 million). Who...

Former ACORN bigwig Dale Rathke racked up a $157,000 American Express bill that he couldn't repay around the time he was caught embezzling from the group founded by his brother Wade, The Post has learned. Rathke was a big spender with multiple credit cards who rang up purchases at luxury shops, traveled by limo and frequented five-star hotels and restaurants, court papers show. American Express filed a claim against Rathke in 2003 in Louisiana civil district court. Among the court papers is a partial credit history that indicates Rathke had several different cards from different companies. He used them to...

New York - Chrysler Financial employees traveling on business can no longer be reimbursed for lunch on trips that don't require an overnight stay. If flying on business, they must travel coach if the flight is less than four hours. Tips to baggage handlers shouldn't exceed $2 per bag. The $4 cost of an in-flight movie? Not reimbursable. The company's new expense rules, posted on its website Friday, are among a handful of policies that have been made public so far as hundreds of companies receiving federal rescue funds scramble to meet a deadline Monday to put in place policies...

Link only - Senate Approves Disclosing Office Expenses Online

Madison — Gov. Jim Doyle and his staff failed to properly account for 145 travel expenses over two years, including a $5,200 business-class flight to Ireland and a $654-a-night stay in a London hotel. Nearly three-fourths of the time in 2007 and 2008, Doyle and his staff didn't supply receipts as required under state travel policy. By comparison, Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton and her staff didn't provide receipts one-third of the time during the same period. Travel records also showed Doyle spent more than $1,500 on two chauffeured vehicles in Canada. That expenditure did not violate state travel policy, however....

Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker, will this afternoon announce that he is to stand down over the MPs' expenses scandal, it has been reported. Mr Martin is expected to inform MPs of his departure in a statement to the Commons at 2.30pm. It is unclear whether he will resign immediately or stay on until the next election. The Speaker's position became untenable after he lost the support of the chamber over his handling of MPs' expenses system.

Governor’s Staff Addresses Expenses Issues on News Media Coverage of Per Diem FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-35 Governor’s Staff Addresses Expenses Issues February 23, 2009, Anchorage, Alaska – Staff for Governor Sarah Palin today responded to persistent news media coverage of the per diem the governor has collected while working away from her official duty station of Juneau, while pointing out significant savings the governor has achieved in regard to the way she has discharged her official duties. “The news media have been focused on the $8,500 the governor has collected in per diem annually while working in Anchorage, almost...

California is facing a $42 billion budget hole that is likely to mean severe cuts to state programs and possibly layoffs, but legislators still are collecting $173 a day for expenses when they're in Sacramento. The Assembly and Senate haven't met since Monday, when they held a joint session to hear testimony from the state treasurer, controller, legislative analyst and state finance director about the state's budget woes.

Questions for John Edwards and Fred Baron When Next Either Surfaces to Confront the PressA "Thank You" to our Network of Readers, Comment-writers and Tipsters! ...including all at Free Republic John Edwards and Fred Baron have had a close relationship over the last ten years. Both Edwards and Baron are successful trial attorneys and both shared the dream of seeing John Edwards elected President. Both may, at some point, want to share some information on campaign travel billings. A DBKP reader, known only as "Phil Ander", did some independent research into the Edwards' campaign's use of Baron's private jet and...

The Nacogdoches County commissioners court voted Tuesday to support numerous community members who have recently turned out in droves opposing the proposed I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor by adopting a resolution against the project. The resolution is expected to be sent to the Texas Department of Transportation and to the governor's office. Precinct 4 Commissioner Tom Strickland said that it's apparent most people in Nacogdoches County approved of the original project — a standard Interstate roadway. But now most are opposed to the large TTC structure. 145th District Court Judge Campbell Cox II submitted a map that showed several oil and gas wells...

STAFF at the United Nations headquarters in New York claimed tens of thousands of pounds in school fees for non-existent children, one of its most senior auditors has revealed.Hundreds of employees also defrauded US tax authorities by claiming refunds for mortgage interest and property taxes that should have gone to the UN. These are just two of the scams to be revealed in a book by Edwin Nhliziyo, chief auditor of the UN’s peacekeeping division until his retirement. His account aims to expose how the UN is losing hundreds of millions of pounds through corruption and fraud. From Kuwait to...

This is the pension squeeze companies aren't talking about: Even as many reduce, freeze or eliminate pensions for workers -- complaining of the costs -- their executives are building up ever-bigger pensions, causing the companies' financial obligations for them to balloon. Companies disclose little about any of this. But a Wall Street Journal analysis of corporate filings reveals that executive benefits are playing a large and hidden role in the declining health of America's pensions. Among the findings: • Boosted by surging pay and rich formulas, executive pension obligations exceed $1 billion at some companies. Besides GM, they include General...

The monthly cost to the US of the war in Iraq is now greater than the average monthly cost of the Vietnam War, a report by two anti-war groups says. The report put costs in Iraq at $500m (£278m) a month more than in Vietnam, adjusted for inflation. This makes Iraq the most expensive US war in the past 60 years, they say. But an analyst from the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) said the cost was small in the context of the whole US economy. The report by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Foreign Policy in Focus...

State Senate leader Don Perata has incurred legal costs averaging $116,000 per month to defend against an FBI inquiry into whether he received outside income for legislative work, according to records released Monday. The Oakland Democrat remained $260,000 in debt as of June 30 despite raising $322,000 from longtime campaign contributors since establishing his defense fund in February, according to campaign finance reports filed with the secretary of state's office. One of the Senate president pro tem's two largest donors was Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, who gave $50,000 to the legal fund in June. Tsakopoulos was outside the United States...

The sheriff's constable delivered the lawsuit to the neat brick home in Cliffside Park on Valentine's Day. It was a bouquet of heartache from Hackensack University Medical Center. "GUIDO OSSO," it read. "You are hereby summoned in a Civil Action of the Superior Court of New Jersey." The reason: Failure to pay a hospital bill of $160,170.35. The wanted man sat at home, slumped in his wheelchair. His head rested on a television tray and his bottom on an incontinence pad. Since a devastating series of strokes in 1999, the 66-year-old Osso hadn't known what day it was, much less...

new Government Accountability report shows that private airport screeners do a better job at detecting dangerous object than the bureaucrats at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). This report is the last in a long series, all of which demonstrate the poor performances of the 45,000-employee bureaucracy. So isn't it time for Congress to acknowledge its mistake and abolish TSA? After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Congress ordered all but five commercial airports to switch from privately employed screeners to a government workforce. Three years after the federal takeover, TSA is inundated with complaints. The GAO reported several times on...

Tax Day is a good time to take a hard look at the way government spends your tax dollars - if you have the stomach for it. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Congress has poured nearly $6 billion into homeland security, and this year's $1.7 billion appropriation represents a 306 percent increase over last year's. But Congress has also ignored the 9/11 Commission's recommendation to use this colossal sum primarily to protect the nation's most vulnerable and strategic targets - including Washington. Instead, hundreds of millions of dollars have been squandered on political pork, according to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman...

They say that if you stack the US Tax Code one page upon another, the pile of paper will reach into the heavens. I’m sure that’s true, for two very simple reasons. First, like most laws written in Washington, those seeking special consideration in the code have lobbied for language that addresses their individual concerns, and nearly everyone is seeking special consideration these days. Second, if “we the people” knew exactly what Washington was doing with all of our hard earned money, there would be a lynch mob on the steps of congress before sundown…so keeping the details buried in...