YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK

Are we angry enough to fight back? JAWS CLENCHED, blood pressures spiked, and radio talk-show hosts spontaneously combusted when the Globe reported last week that the $15 billion Big Dig - formerly known as the $12.2 billion Big Dig, and more formerly as the $7.7 billion Big Dig, and even, once upon a time, as the $2.5 billion Big Dig - will in fact cost a staggering $22 billion and not be paid off until 2038. The Page 1 story was filled with infuriating details, such as the revelation that 80 percent of Massachusetts Highway Department employees are being paid with borrowed money. Bay State politicians originally sold voters on the Big Dig in part by assuring them that Washington would pick up 90 percent of the cost. In reality, nearly three-fourths of the tab is coming from the pockets of Massachusetts drivers and taxpayers. What we were told in the 1980s would set us back about $350 million will actually cost us more than 50 times as much....
Code Enforcers Crack Down On “Silent Menace” Scott Banker always keeps a watchful eye on his 7 year old son, Ian, and his 8 year old niece, Miesha, when they play in their blue inflatable pool. But he acknowledges he has yet to comply with state and local building code laws including the installation of an audible alarm and a barrier fence around the pool. “I usually keep a pretty good eye on the pool, especially when they’re in it and even when they’re not in it…For the regulations, I think they’re a good idea,” said Banker. Massena Code Enforcement Officer Gregory Fregoe has been busy this summer checking for violators. He says any pool holding 24 inches of water or more, including inflatable blue pools, need a permit and should be surrounded by a 4 foot high locked fence or barrier. The law also requires the pool be equipped with an audible alarm that sounds should someone fall in....
Concern grows over a fiscal crisis for U.S. As the Bush administration proposes backstopping mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a $300 billion line of credit and Congress contemplates another economic stimulus, the question is who will bail out the government? "People seem to think the government has money," said former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "The government doesn't have any money." A rare consensus has developed across the political spectrum that the government's own fiscal affairs are precarious, with an astonishing $53 trillion in long-term liabilities, according to the Government Accountability Office. To put that number in human terms, the debt has reached $455,000 per U.S. household. As that debt grows, the United States increasingly relies on foreigners, including China and Middle East oil producers, for financing....