Bits and pieces today:

• Back in December I wrote about how the IRS is having a hell of a time getting their software updated. Here’s the latest shoe to drop: “IRS Commissioner Mark Everson on February 12 said missed deadlines and budget overruns warranted putting two upcoming modernization projects back on the auction block.… Everson told lawmakers he decided to recruit new federal contractors after the Computer Services Corp. — a key player behind the PRIME Alliance that assumed the modernization helm in 1998 — again delayed an anticipated April 2004 rollout of the Integrated Financial System project until later this fall.” (more)
• “Tens of thousands of defense contractors owe the federal government back taxes totaling $3 billion,” and less than $1 million of that has been recovered, in spite of the fact that the federal government writes out the checks to these contractors. So says the busy Mark Everson and the General Accounting Office.
• What’s the first thing to go in Bush’s budget proposal? A tax credit to help poor people buy health insurance. “House Ways and Means Committee Chair William M. Thomas, R-Calif., said… he would not push President Bush’s proposed tax credit for low-income taxpayers who purchase health insurance.… Bush has proposed the refundable tax credit that would pay up to 90 percent of health insurance premiums for individuals with incomes under $30,000. The credits would be capped at $1,000 per adult and $500 per child, and they would cost an estimated $70 billion over the next 10 years.” That’s bad news for those of us on the lookout for new credits to use. However, there is a silver lining: “Thomas was more supportive, although guardedly, of a Bush proposal that would allow HSA holders to take an ‘above-the-line’ deduction on their insurance premiums.”
• And if something has to go, something else has to inflate to fill its gap: In this case, highway funding. The White House budget allocated $256 billion over six years for highway funding. That didn’t last long in the Red-ink Republican Congress — the Senate just passed a bill more than $50 billion fatter. (The version of the bill being prepared in the House is another $50+ billion fatter than that!)
• Some readers respond to yesterday’s “wingnut” entry:
  • Interesting post.… engaged in a bit of direct action there, yourself, it seems.… violating social conventions to actually discuss a method of non-violent civil disobedience. If a meeting advertises for revolutionaries, it should not be surprised when at least one shows up. You could still be a wingnut, but such people are often useful, and do not forget your “history of the demise of slavery postings.” All that change probably required a wingnut or two to leaven things.
  • Yes, you are a wingnut, and yes you accurately and meaningfully challenged to idiocy with which you were faced at the New College panel. Isn’t it possible for both choices to be true at the same time?