More news is emerging from the budget deal reached over the weekend, and this tidbit is not good. The omnibus appropriations bills does not contain any language that would kill or restrict the private tax collection program run by the IRS. The version of the Financial Services Appropriations bill included language that would have stopped the IRS from outsourcing tax collection that was removed from the omnibus. Despite overwhelming evidence that the program is wasteful and dangerous, and strong support for ending the program, it appears the companies receiving contracts to keep one-quarter of the money they collect have too many political connections. It is possible Sen. Chuck Grassley's (R-IA) key voice and strong support of the program kept language out of the omnibus bill. I suppose it is back to the drawing board for public protection and privacy advocates - as well as anyone with the least bit of common sense - who strongly opposed the program. If you are someone who owes money to the IRS, watch out! With this program in place, who knows who will come knocking on your door.

The Progressive States Network just put out an excellent report on privatization. It does three things mainly:

• Documents the failures and dangers of privatizing government on the state level
• Makes the case for increased transparency of privatized state government
• And with the data available, measures the extent of privatization on a number of policy areas in each state.

The New York Times has a great article on backlogs in the Social Security Administration. Another example of where more funding and staffing is needed for government to do its job.

If you were slightly sick to your stomach after reading Matt's post yesterday about a drastically under funded Food and Drug Administration and the risks posed to consumer safety, don't think you can get away from that feeling by taking the kids to Disney World this winter for a tropical getaway. The Washington Post published a great investigative report on safety inspections of rides at theme/amusement parks and traveling carnivals. The article uncovered that the Federal oversite agency responsive for inspecting the rides - the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) - is dangerously overworked and under funded compared to its mission and lacks sufficient authority to adequately ensure public safety. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency responsible for regulating traveling carnival rides, has not required Wisdom or any other ride manufacturer to make safety improvements in the past eight years. After a meeting last year on the Sizzler's troubled safety record, the agency asked only that ride operators pay "greater attention to safety." The CPSC has no employee whose full-time job is to ensure the safety of such rides. The agency's 90 field investigators -- who oversee 15,000 products, work from their homes and live mostly on the East Coast -- are so overstretched that they frequently arrive at carnival accident scenes after rides have been dismantled. As a result, critics say, supermarket shopping carts feature a more standardized child-restraint system than do amusement rides, which can travel as fast as 100 mph and, according to federal estimates, cause an average of four deaths and thousands of injuries every year. Hmmmm...I feel like I've already seen this movie. What's worse, the article points out, is that the CPSC does not even have the authority to inspect larger, permanent parks - called "fixed-site" amusement parks - like Disney World and Six Flags: State regulators and ride safety advocates say that this record [of lack of inspections and safety problems] is emblematic of wider problems at the CPSC, whose lagging efforts to keep unsafe toys and other children's products from the marketplace have created a public outcry and have brought intense congressional scrutiny. Rulemaking by the agency has decreased during the Bush administration, and its officials say that budget and staffing constraints have made the commission vulnerable to industry pressure to adopt voluntary standards, or, in the case of fixed-site amusement park rides, no federal regulation. Despite Congress holding hearings on the CPSC and its budget and staffing issues, it is unclear if any change will come this year. With the appropriations process just about broken and Congress and the president continuing to argue over minute differences in funding, the CPSC continues to operate with inadequate resources and poor leadership. Enjoy your trip to Orlando.