Right Truth will begin posting regular Watch Dog reports, where States and organizations are making an effort to investigate spending and legislation that affects individual Americans. Also efforts to right wrongs against individual rights, the Constitution and freedoms in general.
This working paper by Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, analyzes the disbursement of funds authorized through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Using recipient report data from Recovery.gov and economic and political data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, GovTrack.us, and others, we have compiled a series of facts about stimulus spending. This report is simply to make use of the tens of thousands of stimulus recipient reports recently published on Recovery.gov, and to put the aggregate information contained in those reports in a larger context. This report will become part of a regular series as new recipient reports are released each quarter.
Here are a few of the facts you will find in the report:
- Every job created or saved during this period cost an average of $285,814.61 per job.
- Democratic districts on average received 1.53 times the amount of rewards than Republican districts.
- Public entities are receiving fewer contracts, but there is a higher average dollar value on public awards.
You can download the PDF file here. The complete data set is also available:
Veronique also testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure with her findings. You can view the testimony here:
You should download and read the pdf here, an excellent source for facts and figures..
From the Tennessee Center for Policy Research:
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TCPR
Working Hard on "Health Freedom Act"
After passage of the massive and controversial healthcare
reform bill by Congress, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research stepped up its
efforts to pass the "Health Freedom Act" in the state legislature. The bill,
which passed out of a House subcommittee this morning, would recognize the right
of Tennesseans to opt out of mandated health insurance coverage. It would also
instruct the state Attorney General to protect Tennesseans' rights against the
new federal healthcare requirements. Read the statement in support of the bill
here.
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Paving the Way
for True Education Reform
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research
recently issued a policy brief outlining the benefits of the proposed "Parental
Choice Scholarship Act." The bill would allow parents in Memphis to remove their
children from failing public schools and place them in a better private,
charter, or public school. Click here to read the entire brief, titled Paving
the Way for True Education Reform in Memphis.
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Watchdog Continues Coverage of
TNInvestco
"TennesseeWatchdog" editor Clint Brewer
provides extensive information on the state's TNInvestco program, which allows
insurance companies to receive tax credits for investing in certain small
businesses. Under the program, two high-ranking state officials have sole
discretion over selecting the recipients of the funding and do so without
acountability or oversight. Visit TennesseeWatchdog.org for continued
coverage of the program.
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TCPR Assists in Effort to Thwart
Income Tax
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research
has teamed up with several state lawmakers to declare once and for all that a
state income tax is unconstitutional. With our help, the constitutional
amendment, SJR763, passed the state Senate this week by a signficant margin. It
will now move to the House of Representatives. Read our statement on the passage
of the amendment here.
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Calling All
Watchdogs
It's that time of year again when the Tennessee Center for Policy Research begins to prepare for the annual Pork Report, detailing millions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse of your tax dollars. The famous publication would not be successful without the support of citizen watchdogs across the state. If you have examples of waste, fraud and abuse of your tax dollars, submit your confidential tip to info@tennesseepolicy.org or (615) 383-6431.
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IN
THE NEWS
Union City
Messenger
TCPR's Justin Owen
discusses the healthcare bill with the hometown newspaper of U.S. Rep. John
Tanner, just before he cast his "no" vote on the bill. Read the article here.
WSMV, News Channel 4
Director of Policy Justin Owen is interviewed on the
nightly news about a proposal to freeze legislators' per diem pay. Watch the
interview here.
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