Category Archives: Corruption

Automobiles, Corruption, Crony Capitalism, Energy, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Gasoline, Regulatory Costs, Subsidies, Transportation, USDA - US Department of Agriculture, Waste, Fraud & Abuse

‘Dirty Rotten Ethanol Scoundrels’ – Wall St. Journal

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ethanol in gasolineA Wall Street Journal editorial notes that the EPA is reducing the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline below the level required by the 2007 energy bill.

Why? Because it’s impossible to meet the goal without diluting gasoline so badly that it will damage car engines because ethanol is corrosive. Requiring 10% (E-10) is bad enough, but mandating anything higher would “damage the engines and fuel systems of most of the cars and trucks on the road today . . . risking accidents, breakdowns and valve, pump, cylinder and injector replacements rarely covered by consumer warranties.”

But to placate corn farmers, the Agriculture Department pledged $100 million in state grants to help fix vehicles that use higher blends of ethanol. That’s more taxpayer money to fix the damage caused by taxpayer subsidies of ethanol.

The WSJ concludes: “Such is the corruption of corporate welfare, which continues for no reason other than that it already exists.”

Read more: Dirty Rotten Ethanol Scoundrels – WSJ

Corruption, IRS - Internal Revenue Service, Privacy, Tea Party

IRS singles out Tea Party donors for audits

IRS auditEven if you’ve done nothing wrong, an IRS audit is expensive. Congress learned that the Internal Revenue Service singled-out donors to Tea Party groups, auditing their tax returns ten times as frequently as for regular taxpayers.

The House Ways and Means Committee announced that the IRS subjected 10% of those donors to audits, compared to only 1% on average for everybody else.

As one attorney described the burden: “It has cost them their retirement; it has cost them tens of thousands of dollars to fight the IRS; it’s expensive.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/9/istook-illegal-irs-audits-rob-tea-party-supporters/#ixzz3cVpm8MPb

Corruption, IRS - Internal Revenue Service

IRS ‘wants to throw us in jail’ says Tea Party leader

Go to jail“They want to throw us in jail,” says Tea Party Patriots leader Jenny Beth Martin about the IRS’s targeting of the Tea Party movement.

Emails released under court order showed the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service discussed how to prosecute someone from the Tea Party for supposed false claims about political activity.

“Clearly they were trying to find ways to throw us in jail,” says Ms. Martin.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/18/istook-irs-wants-throw-us-jail-says-tea-party-lead/#ixzz3cNNmosLz 
Barack Obama, Corruption, Crony Capitalism, Obamacare, Politicians, Waste, Fraud & Abuse

Too much regulation invites corruption

Jimmy Fallon
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Massive regulation breeds corruption as people and businesses look for shortcuts and loopholes. Politicians use complexity to “interpret” red tape to favor friends, reward donors, and punish enemies.

Obamacare is a prime example. There were 381,517 words in the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress. But by early 2014 the regulations “interpreting” the law surpassed 11,588,500 words.

  
 

Red tape hurts all of us with higher prices, fewer jobs and less freedom.