http://www.capitolwatch.org Defending American Taxpayers from Ineffective Government and Wasteful Spending en-us http://www.capitolwatch.org/frontStory.php?ID=223 This week, a Washington Post article revealed that the U.S. Government has spent $890,000 this past year to maintain…empty bank accounts. That’s right. These are accounts with no funds and exist essentially on paper. However, whether the government uses them or not, it still must pay the yearly maintenance fee of $65 on each of the accounts. $65 isn’t much money when the Government routinely runs up deficits in excess of $1 trillion each year. But when multiplied across the 13,712 empty accounts, the money adds up. http://www.capitolwatch.org/frontStory.php?ID=222 Over the past year we have heard over and over again from President Obama that we need to pay more in taxes. In fact this year, we’ll pay more than ever before in the history of our country. Both the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the White House estimate the government will collect around $2.7 trillion in 2013, up from around $2.45 trillion last year. That number is set to go up in the coming years. The CBO projects the revenue collected by the government will double between 2012 and 2023. http://www.capitolwatch.org/frontStory.php?ID=221 Most people know the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as the U.S. Government agency charged with collecting tax dollars. However, according to a report released late last month by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) the IRS wasted millions on aircrads and BlackBerrys without oversight. http://www.capitolwatch.org/frontStory.php?ID=220 “Over the last few years, Democrats and Republicans have come together and cut our deficit [over the next decade] by more than $2.5 trillion through a balanced mix of spending cuts and higher tax rates for the wealthiest Americans. That’s more than halfway towards the $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists and elected officials from both parties say we need to stabilize our debt,” Obama said this month. http://www.capitolwatch.org/frontStory.php?ID=219 Throughout the debate on healthcare reform, the President and Congressional Democrats promised that the reforms they were seeking were being done in the name of lowering costs and increasing access to care. Now that Obamacare is finally being implemented, the opposite has become true – healthcare costs have risen, and the exchanges promised to expand access to millions.