Taxpayers for Common Sense

National nonpartisan budget watchdog: Calling for more transparency, calling out wasteful spending. Read more in our Weekly Wastebasket

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

Federal taxpayers own a 700-million-acre mineral estate across the U.S. Companies lease it, profit from it, and are supposed to clean up after it. Instead, we’re stuck with the bill. https://t.co/tHiwltu1cL

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

The federal deficit reached $1.37 trillion in the first nine months of FY2026, $35 billion higher than last year. Taxpayers can’t afford to ignore this growing fiscal imbalance. Read more here: https://t.co/x1JEH5j7eK

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

TCS VP in @PowellTribune on BLM’s proposed rule to roll back bonding reforms, which risks once again shifting reclamation and well cleanup costs off industry and onto taxpayers. https://t.co/DYU1ERa4OI

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

This week the Dept. of Energy announced up to $150,000,000 in grants for the oil & gas industry, including for development from "unconventional" reservoirs. Yet another handout for a highly subsidized industry. https://t.co/iZDFxzoEpb

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

$2.5 billion and counting: that is what the Department of Interior has agreed to pay companies not to build offshore wind projects they already leased federal waters for. Who will pay the price for these deals? Taxpayers. https://t.co/Wn5ocxuY36

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

Estimated costs of the Golden Dome could cost taxpayers $3.6 trillion over the next 20 years. Yet this astronomical estimate isn’t even the upper limit of Golden Dome’s cost. https://t.co/kgKSSr9aaF

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

The Dept. of Interior leased more public land for drilling than any quarter since 2019, while also proposing to cut the financial assurances companies must post to cover eventual cleanup. The risk to taxpayers? $6 billion in potential cleanup liabilities. https://t.co/tHiwltu1cL

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

The federal tax code is on track to funnel >$51,000,000,000 in tax subsidies to the oil and gas industry over FY2025–FY2029. Some provisions are over a century old. If Congress wants to reduce the deficit, these outdated tax giveaways is a place to start: https://t.co/ujW4xKuhBH

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

$1.4 trillion in 9 months. This is the federal budget deficit reported by the Congressional Budget Office. That’s a $35 billion increase from the same period last fiscal year. Read more about where the federal government is spending your tax dollars here: https://t.co/x1JEH5j7eK

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

Oil and gas companies vent and flare methane, the main component of natural gas into the atmosphere even though technologies to capture it exist & are cost effective. This waste of our energy resources harms taxpayers, communities, and the public: https://t.co/j3dQvr6C9T

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

America’s offshore resources are public assets. Understanding offshore wind leasing helps explain today’s policy decision and the importance of protecting taxpayer interests. Read more here: https://t.co/BSKCWDv4Sm

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

Today's @POLITICOPro Morning Energy features a new Taxpayers for Common Sense report on how the oil & gas industry is on track to get $51,000,000,000 in targeted tax subsidies over the next 5yrs - money that should have gone to the Treasury. https://t.co/ujW4xKuhBH

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

In 2025 alone, tax expenditures cost $2.2 trillion. They look like tax breaks on paper, but they hit like spending. Both parties can claim victory, but taxpayers are getting a defeat. https://t.co/4ptVcXZ407

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

NEW: TCS report breaks down how the oil and gas industry is set to get $51,000,000,000 in targeted tax subsidies that depart from standard tax rules, all while global oil markets reel from the Iran war and consumers face higher bills and prices at the pump: https://t.co/e8M3agzAqA

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

Federal waters belong to the American taxpayer. Federal offshore wind program generates revenue for taxpayers and can deliver significant amounts of electricity to the grid. Learn more: https://t.co/BSKCWDv4Sm

[Project On Government Oversight @POGOwatchdog]

Have you seen our latest report with @taxpayers?

Long story short, it breaks down how lawmakers could not only cut the Pentagon budget by half a trillion $$, but how they could do so while ALSO strengthening national security.

Check it out: https://t.co/W1TxdzadWc

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

Watch Steve Ellis on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power” break down why fiscal responsibility doesn’t stop at the Pentagon. Strong national defense and strong oversight go hand in hand, especially when the national debt has topped $40 trillion. https://t.co/BQOalnhOta

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

Who pays to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells on federal lands? Right now, bonding rules help ensure it’s the companies, not the taxpayers. The BLM is proposing to weaken those requirements: https://t.co/W0FLcXijWj

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

Despite slow and steady growth every quarter and year from 2010-2019, America still added $14 trillion to its deficit. This wasn’t circumstantial. It was the result of specific choices. https://t.co/4ptVcXZ407

[Taxpayers for Common Sense @taxpayers]

The Department of Interior has now paid more than $2.5 billion in taxpayer money to get energy companies to walk away from offshore wind leases they already paid for. That’s not smart energy strategy that’s a taxpayer funded buyout. https://t.co/Wn5ocxuY36