GOVERNMENT WASTE

- WISCONSIN -

Date	Individual / State Agency	Who, What, Where?
04/29/2005	U. S. Senate	Representative Number One Travel Hog According to PoliticalMoneyLine.com, which tracks the trail of money in politics, the number of trips taken by our elected officials, paid for special-interest lobbies, is staggering. The kingpin is James SensenBrenner (Republican - Wisconsin), who must have a wonderful attendance record in Congress, for he managed to take $168,00 in trips. A close second is Representative Maurice Hinchey of New York (Democrat - Ulster County) with a $161,393 tab, who has traveled to Prague, Rome, Moscow, Shanghai and Morocco. His trips took 140 days since 2000, much more than the 102-day session in the current year. So he doesn’t stand out in New York, Representative Gregory Meeks (Democrat - Queens) must have observed the luxurious lifestyle of his compatriot, for he and his wife managed trips to Malaysia, London, Ghana, Jamaica, Barbados and St. Lucia, no doubt to observe the dire poverty in these countries, which just happen to be topnotch tourist attractions. Ironically, Tom Delay (Senator – Texas), who has come under so much heat, is a piker in comparison, ranking only 28^th on the travel circuit.
09/01/05	Housing and Economic Development	State Helps Illegals Get Mortgages We have all heard the discussions regarding “guest workers,” about illegal immigrants getting driver’s licenses, and about how healthcare and other amenities cost the state of California over $1 billion per year to support illegal immigrants, but now the state of Wisconsin has crossed the line. The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority is helping illegal immigrants get their first mortgage often competing against American citizens. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) gives out individual taxpayer ID numbers, or 1-TIN, so illegal immigrants can pay taxes. Now Wisconsin allows the use of this 1-TIN number in place of the Social Security number when applying for mortgages. To-date, 150 mortgages totaling more than $16 million have been processed. Republican senator Glenn Grothman is now proposing legislation that would require social security numbers on all loans provided by the state to counter this waste of taxpayer dollars.