The most spooky and creative of holidays reveals a core truth about this podcast, and Taxpayers for Common Sense itself:  budget watchdog’in is a team sport. It takes energy and precision and real doggedness to run with our pack… and so today the whole gang is here. Happy Halloween Listening… if you dare.

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Episode 32: Transcript

Announcer:

Welcome to Budget Watchdog All Federal, the podcast dedicated to making sense of the budget, spending and tax issues facing the nation. Cut through the partisan rhetoric and talking points for the facts about what’s being talked about, bandied about and pushed in Washington. Brought to you by Taxpayers for Common Sense. And now the host of Budget Watchdog AF, TCS President Steve Ellis.

Steve Ellis:

Welcome to All, American taxpayers seeking common sense. You’ve made it to the right place. For over 25 years, TCS, that’s Taxpayers for Common Sense, has served as an independent non-partisan budget watchdog group based in Washington DC. We believe in fiscal policy for America that is based on facts. We believe in transparency and accountability. Because no matter where you are in the political spectrum, no one wants to see their tax dollars wasted.

It’s late October, 2022 and Halloween is almost upon us. In preparation for this most spooky and creative of holidays, dear podcast listeners, I want to drive home a core truth about this show and Taxpayers for Common Sense itself. Budget watchdog-ing is a team sport. It takes energy and precision and real doggedness to run with our pack. And so today, the whole gang is here. All right. Together we’re going to podcast Halloween style. So with less than a week to go, I’m going to check in on my colleagues and see what each of them is dressed as for Halloween. You’ll see that even dressed up there’s still budget watchdogs. I’m going to start with Tyler Work. All right, Tyler, what’s your costume for Halloween?

Tyler Work:

This year, I’m dressed as America’s favorite British Secret Service agent double O7. The one and only. You know, it’s funny so many people associate the word bond with fancy cars and action packed fight scenes. When James Bond creator Ian Fleming only settles on the name because he thought it was “extremely dull.”

Steve Ellis:

Now that name means just the opposite. James Bond is probably the first thing that pops into people’s head when they hear the word bond, or even just bond, even though it’s a common enough word.

Tyler Work:

Exactly. Like at TCS, if we’re talking about bonds, we probably aren’t comparing Daniel Craig and Sean Connery. But instead, we’re talking about oil and gas bonds, which are financial assurances oil and gas operators make before drilling on federal lands in order to cover the cost of reclaiming, cleaning up sites after they’re done drilling. Sure they aren’t the sexiest bond to talk about, but they’re important. When operators drill oil and gas wells on federal lands, they change the landscape, and these changes can pose environmental and public health risks if not reclaimed properly. The problem is that most bonds held by the Department of the Interior don’t reflect the full reclamation costs for the wells they cover. In fact, according to a 2019 report by the Government Accountability Office, 84% of bonds which cover 99.5% of wells on federal lands are not enough to pay for even the lowest cleanup costs. Put simply, the current rules are outdated in failing taxpayers, and we’d like to see reforms that ensure oil and gas companies not taxpayers are paying to reclaim abandoned wells.

Steve Ellis:

Well, with all you’ve talked about with bonds, it seems like Tyler, you could have just dressed up as an oil and gas bond for Halloween instead.

Tyler Work:

You know Steve, I thought about it, but oil and gas bonds don’t quite have the same name brand recognition as James Bond. But hey, maybe next year.

Steve Ellis:

All right. All right, fair enough. So now we’re moving to Sheila Karpf, the real oracle of Omaha. Are you Warren Buffet this year, Sheila?

Sheila Karpf:

Ah, Steve, that’s a good idea. But I’m a farmer diving into farm subsidies and candy. We get asked sometimes whether farm subsidies go to healthy foods or unhealthy ones like Halloween candy. While technically taxpayers do subsidize fruits and vegetables through the Federal Crop Insurance Program, most farm subsidies for farmers like me go to just a handful of commodity crops like corn and soybeans. So with corn syrup near the top of so many ingredient lists on lots of different candies, everything from Jelly Ranchers to Starbursts, that’s a lot of subsidized candy. Yummy.

Steve Ellis:

Farmers sure have this Halloween thing covered.

Sheila Karpf:

Yes, Steve. I was looking up a few ingredient lists just before this, and I found corn syrup and soy lecithin at the top of many of those. So we have plenty of subsidized food ingredients through the Federal Farm Bill. We also subsidize here in the US nuts and dairy as well. So that covers a whole wide range of Halloween candy. Those are some of my favorites, like Snickers and Baby Ruths, plus those that I detested growing up and thus traded with my sister like Almond Joys.

I’m not sure about you Steve, but I’m a fan of the big candy bars, not the miniature ones. Given farm subsidies in recent years have cost taxpayers records amount of money, nearly $50 billion just in 2020, it’s appropriate that candy bar sizes keep up with the Joneses or that go-to house that you just had to hit up on Halloween. For me, it was the full-sized candy bars plus homemade popcorn balls. And yes, in case you’re wondering, there are crop insurance subsidies for popcorn, too.

Finally, if you’re that house that handed out fruit or pencils like your mom, Steve, there are Federal Farm Bill subsidies for those, too. Okay, not technically pencils, but so-called wood products for lumber and the like. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there, Steve.

Steve Ellis:

Batch of watch dog AF faithful, you just heard a not so subtle dig at my mom. Yes, in elementary school my mom gave out pencils one year. It wasn’t my idea, but I can assure you it wasn’t fun the next day at school.

Soundbite:

Loser.

Steve Ellis:

Thanks, mom. All right. Looking around. Mike Surrusco, what’s your plan?

Mike Surrusco:

Hey, Steve. Sorry to hear about your mom. I am the coolest of costumes. I am Captain Kool-Aid, who is the anthropomorphic pitcher filled with Cherry Kool-Aid, answering the call of children everywhere.

Steve Ellis:

You come here for the podcast for the budget information, but you also get vocabulary lesson too with anthropomorphic. That will look good on you. I can certainly remember those commercials and have enjoyed a glass or two.

Mike Surrusco:

Well, that’s good. It seemed like this was the most appropriate costume for this conversation about government subsidies because sugar has been a favorite of the federal government over the years. We subsidize sugar production in a number of different ways. There are loans that the federal government offers below market rates. There are also restrictions that are placed on the amount of sugar that each producer is allowed to produce in order to keep the price of sugar high. We also put tariffs on imports of sugar from other countries to protect sugar manufacturers. Then the federal government actually goes and purchases sugar and sells it at a loss to biofuels companies who turn it into ethanol. As a result of all of this, sugar in the United States is about twice the cost in other countries, which is a real bummer at Halloween.

Steve Ellis:

Exactly, exactly. Not to make this all about my mom, but truth be told, my frugal mother always bought the packets of Kool-Aid that didn’t have sugar added. You had to add the sugar because they were a better deal. But I mean she still had to buy the sugar and so she still had to pay that increase cost. Well, between you and Sheila, that’s enough about sweeteners. I’m going to turn to someone who, I’m pretty sure, isn’t going to be talking about sugar or corn. Wendy, what are you going as this year? I see you’re wearing a leather flight jacket and aviator sunglasses. Are you Tom Cruise and Top Gun?

Wendy Jordan:

Oh Steve, you know how important it is to me to be au courant. So I’m actually a member of the newest branch of the military. I’m a Space Force Guardian.

Steve Ellis:

Oh, I guess I see that now.

Wendy Jordan:

Steve, do you remember way back, cast your mind back to the Trump administration when they were creating the Space Force out of the Air Force, and making it its own branch of the military? Back then, the Pentagon Comptroller was told by the head of the Office of Management and Budget that he wasn’t allowed to spend more than $5 billion on the Space Force.

Steve Ellis:

Like that was ever going to happen.

Wendy Jordan:

Exactly. Space Force is slowly being carved out of the existing Air Force. One person, one mission, one weapon system at a time, and it’s going to take years. So I’m hanging onto this costume because it’ll be good for a long time. The top line of the Space Force budget request back in March when the Biden administration put out its budget request was 24 and a half billion dollars. Of that, a huge proportion is just for research and development, $15.8 billion. That’s already about half of the Air Force R & D budget, which is a little over 30 billion.

Steve Ellis:

Budget Watchdog AF listeners, you can read more about the Space Force budget by going to taxpayer.net and pulling up our five fast facts on the Space Force budget and there’s a lot of other five fast facts there for you to follow along.

Wendy Jordan:

Indeed, we did one for each of the military services among other non-military five fast facts. So going back to the Trump administration, when they said $5 billion, that’s all we’re spending on the Space Force, let’s just say that just operations and maintenance for the Space Force in FY 23 is projected to be $4 billion. So not the people, not the systems, not the R & D, just O & M, $4 billion. That $5 billion stuff back in the Trump administration was a farce.

Steve Ellis:

It’s funny how cost projections is that the Pentagon never turned out to be too high.

Wendy Jordan:

That’s true. I always say that in the Pentagon, the only mathematics you need to know is addition. There’s never any subtraction to be found.

Steve Ellis:

But there’s probably some multiplication.

Wendy Jordan:

Probably so.

Steve Ellis:

Thanks, Wendy. Now we’re turning to Ike Obi who rejoined TCS earlier this year. Ike, this is your first time on BWF, Budget Watchdog All-Federal. In your return engagement heading our comms work after a few years in the wilderness, welcome to the podcast. What are you going as?

Ike Obi:

I’m an IRS employee.

Steve Ellis:

Interesting. I’m not sure that’s going to be popular. Are you going to be an agent flashing a badge and carrying a gun?

Ike Obi:

No, there’s not actually many of those. I’m going to go as one of the 87,000 youth staff the IRS is going to be able to hire after a $90 billion increase of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Steve Ellis:

So you’re going to be one of those new employees that are going to take the place of the 50,000 who are expected to retire over the next decade.

Ike Obi:

Exactly. The IRS has been bleeding staff for years and at attrition has led to 50% cut in audits on large corporations. It’s costing us money. Some of these new hires are going to answer people’s phones and conduct audits on higher income and exotic tax filers. The Treasury Inspector General for tax administration found a $441 billion gap in taxes paid versus taxes owed over a three-year period.

Steve Ellis:

Okay, but what type of new IRS employee are you going to be?

Ike Obi:

Well, Steve, I like a challenge, so I want to take on modernizing the computer tax processing system that is 60 years old, COBOL. That’s a major security threat to all of us. Also, I’m going with a treat.

Steve Ellis:

I thought you were supposed to get a treat.

Ike Obi:

Well, the treat we’re all getting is that the IRA gives the IRS cash to start their own free-filing system for taxpayers. What was happening before didn’t work. 70% of taxpayers have been able to free file, but only 3% were actually able to.

Steve Ellis:

That’s really shocking. I mean, we all know that part of it is that the companies that were doing this, that basically they would rather people pay for their services than to free-file. So they’re taking advantage of it. Well thanks, Ike.

You’re listening to the Halloween edition of Budget Watchdog All-Federal, the podcast dedicated to keeping it spooky while making sense of the budget spending and tax issues facing the nation. I’m your host TCS President Steve Ellis, and we continue now with more of the taxpayer team. Let’s go to Mia Huang. So Mia, what’s your costume?

Mia Huang:

Well Steve, I’m feeling like my costume is a little lazy compared to everyone else’s, but I decided to be the fire emoji. Because, you know what? Everything we do here at TCS is lit.

Steve Ellis:

That might be true, but it also brings to mind all the firework work we’ve been doing, tracking wildfire spending, et cetera.

Mia Huang:

That’s right, Steve. Wildfire has absolutely been the hot topic in recent years as our planet is literally getting warmer. Wildfire is becoming a growing problem burning through 8 million acres on average from 2017 to 2021. As a result, wildfire suppression costs or firefighting costs have also ballooned. The federal government spend on average $2.9 billion on suppression alone each year from 2017 to 2021, more than double the amount spent from 2007 to 2011. But the thing is putting out fires by throwing money on them is not really the smartest solution to our wildfire problem. Increasing suppression spending without smarter investment in wildfire prevention and risk reduction will only lead to more suppression spending down the road. We need to invest in programs that decrease fire risk and make our communities more resilient.

Steve Ellis:

I’d say that that same goes for disaster spending writ large. I mean every dollar spent … well, we know every dollar spent post disasters should also pre-spawn to future disasters and make communities safer and more resilient. We also know that every dollar spent on mitigation saves six or more dollars on the back end.

Mia Huang:

Definitely. Well, the good news is that the infrastructure investment in Jobs Act or the IIJA made billions of dollars worth of investment in wildfire risk mitigation. However, we must make sure that all these money are spent wisely on risk reduction and forest management programs that actually follow science and do not cater to industry interests. For example, carrying out hazardous fuel reduction program where it’s needed most and not let the wood product and timber industry use it just as another form of subsidy.

Steve Ellis:

I get it. We can’t allow industry to take advantage of these situations. Just like, it makes me think of back in the 2017 hurricane season where cotton producers exploited the situation to slip in more subsidies for themselves even though they were already covered by crop insurance.

Mia Huang:

Exactly. Congress needs a separate legitimate unmet needs from parochial interests to ensure that disaster-related funding is spent wisely and without waste, fraud, and abuse.

Steve Ellis:

Hear, hear! Great costume, good work. Hey Josh Sewell, what are you going as?

Josh Sewell:

Everyone else has already made this about the Farm Bill. I’m going to go as another crowd favorite: Earmarks. For years, folks have been trying to put a stake through the heart of this process where an individual lawmaker can direct tax dollars to a specific project, contractor, or community, usually in their district. But year after year, more lawmakers fall under the spell. The outbreak is worse amongst those sitting on the appropriations committee, but the condition courses through many in Washington. But like those of the flesh variety, earmarks are a fiscal zombie plaguing Washington. So after embarrassing instances of corruption, eventually we got earmark transparency. Then, even a year’s long moratorium. But earmarks keep rising from the dead. Remember directed spending, earmarks; community project funding, fun-fetti, whatever you call it, the thirst for cash seems to have reinfected both the House and Senate body. And these shape shifters of federal spending are back and starting to control lawmakers.

Steve Ellis:

It’s a good costume, Josh. Now making her Budget watchdog AF debut is Gabby Sanchez. Gabby, welcome to the pod.

Gabriela Sanchez:

Hi, Steve. Happy to be here.

Steve Ellis:

So Gabby, what’s your costume

Gabriela Sanchez:

This year, I am dressing up as a reindeer.

Steve Ellis:

Maybe you got the holidays mixed up a little bit.

Gabriela Sanchez:

Only when you call it a reindeer. The North American term caribou sounds a little more like a year-round animal. Native to the far north, caribou are beautiful animals that migrate hundreds of miles northwards. For example, the porcupine caribou herd in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge contains about 123,000 animals and migrates between summer and winter, ranges are 400 miles apart.

Steve Ellis:

Now I get it. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, something we’ve discussed on this podcast before, but not about its caribou population.

Gabriela Sanchez:

That’s right, Steve. Usually when we’re talking on the podcast about the Arctic Refuge, it’s about the coastal plain that was opened up for the first time for oil and gas development in the 2017 Tax Act. The first oil and gas lead cell, which was held almost two years ago in 2021 was extremely disappointing. It brought in less than 1% of the $1 billion that taxpayers were promised. And as time has gone on, the only two private companies that have leases have given them up. Drilling for oil and gas in this remote and sensitive area doesn’t make sense for taxpayers or for the caribou.

Steve Ellis:

I remember at TCS we caribou-ed that provision in the 2017 Tax Act. Okay, I guess I’m not going as comedian this year. All right, finally, my longtime colleague, Autumn Hanna. Autumn, I know you’re a fan of the latest Ghostbuster flick. I hear that in honor of the announcement that a fourth is in the making, you’ll be donning a proton pack this Halloween. Is this true?

Autumn Hanna:

Yes, and my costume makes good fodder for Budget Watchdog AF too because fighting ghosts is pretty much like fighting waste. It takes a thick skin and a lot of sleuthing and nothing comes back more from the dead than wasteful spending in programs. But this year, my blaster is focused on the ghostly methane waste problem. As listeners might remember from our recent podcast and report, I’ve had methane on my mind. Ratcheting down, leaked, vented, and flared methane has quite a few scary similarities to fending off paranormal activity. We need to track it down, capture it, and end it for good.

Steve Ellis:

I got it, Autumn. And I like the costume. So how’s it going to go?

Autumn Hanna:

It won’t be easy. We have a long way to go. Even on the first step. Most of the existing data about methane emissions on federal lands are self-reported by oil and gas operators. Talk about the gatekeeper guarding the key master.

Soundbite:

There is no Dana, only Zuul.

Autumn Hanna:

And as we highlight in our recent report, the current federal oil and gas program fails taxpayers by not charging royalties or curtailing waste. But just like the-

Soundbite:

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Autumn Hanna:

… on a rampage in New York City, we have to tackle the methane waste problem head on full bora, or we risk jeopardizing all of humanity. Methane has a global warming potential 80 times higher than carbon dioxide for its to first 20 years in the atmosphere, and it’s release contributes to growing taxpayer costs of climate change.

Steve Ellis:

I’m really liking this whole Ghostbusters imagery woven in here. Now I’m really wondering how you’re going to bring this home, Autumn.

Autumn Hanna:

So when there’s something strange in your neighborhood, Steve, whether it’s methane waste or any of the other harmful spending or programs, who are you going to call?

Steve Ellis:

Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Autumn Hanna:

So Steve, Budget watchdog AF listeners have heard about all of us. What are you going for for Halloween?

Steve Ellis:

What else than a Budget Watchdog.

Wendy Jordan:

All right, I’m going to call foul on that because you have cats, not dogs.

Steve Ellis:

Wendy, where’s your imagination? One, I can tell you those cats watch a lot. Anyone walking by my house can see them in the window watching every squirrel and every passer-by. Besides, I’m not cool enough to dress up my cats. It’s me that has been the budget watchdog.

Actually, all of us go as watchdogs every day of the year, and it’s not just dressing up and it’s more than a job. We suss out the tricks being paid on taxpayers and hand out treats in the form of stopping wasteful spending and delivering responsible policies that prioritize spending, promote equity, and build resilience, fiscal and otherwise.

Well, I want to take this moment to thank all my colleagues for sharing their costumes and I hope you enjoyed the pod. The whole TCS team wishes you only treats this Halloween. And don’t forget to brush your teeth. This is the frequency market on your dial. Subscribe and share and know this: Taxpayers for Common Sense has your back, America. We read the bills, monitor their earmarks, and highlight those wasteful programs that poorly spend our money and shift long-term risk to taxpayers. We’ll be back with a new episode, and I hope you’ll meet us right here.