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The National Taxpayers Union Foundation released the latest information on the President’s State of the Union speech this morning. Covered on CNBC, US News & World Report, and Investors Business Daily, the study authored by Senior Policy Analyst Demian Brady also appeared at the top of the Drudge Report. A part of the Foundation’s SOTU coverage, Brady examined the speech line-by-line to give taxpayers a cost of the President’s proposed agenda. Here are a few highlights:

• 2011 SOTU Net Spending: $21.349 billion per year
• 2010 SOTU Net Spending: $70.46 billion per year
• Number of Spending Proposals: 15 (5 boost spending, 3 cut spending, 7 unknown spending impact)
• Largest Spending Increase Item: “Investment” in transportation infrastructure ($50 billion)
• Largest Spending Cut Item: Two-year extension of last year’s proposed three-year discretionary spending freeze (-$15 billion)
• Highest NTUF Recorded SOTU Net Spending: President Clinton’s 1999 speech ($305 billion)
• Lowest NTUF Recorded SOTU Net Spending: President Bush’s 2006 speech ($1 billion)

NTUF also announced the panelists who will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference next week in Washington DC:

• The Honorable Devin Nunes of the House of Representatives
• Maya MacGuineas, President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
• Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President, American Action Forum
• Dan Mitchell, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
• Steve Moore, Wall Street Journal

The Taxpayer’s Tab included four newly scored bills in the 112^th Congress:

• HR 403, Homes for Heroes Act of 2011
• HR 38, a bill to rescind funds appropriated to the Health Insurance Reform Implementation Fund under the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010
• HR 27, Lumbee Recognition Act
• HR 90, a bill to provide for federal research, development, demonstration, and commercial application activities to enable the development of farms tha are net producers of both frood and energy, and for other purposes.

Tonight at 9 p.m. EST, the National Taxpayers Union's crack government affairs and policy analysis teams will provide special online coverage of the President’s State of the Union Address, and we want you to be there and be a part of the discussion. We will be breaking down the President's proposals and what they will mean for taxpayers. Details on how you can join the conversation are below.

• If you have a Twitter account, use the hash tags #NTUSOTU and #SOTU to link to our discussions and analyses. Hash tags are like keywords for Twitter. Just use them in each of your messages to link to the ongoing dialogue. Remember to also follow @NTU and @NTUF for all the latest commentary!

• You can also log onto NTU’s Facebook page, where we will constantly update our newsfeed with links, comments, and memorable quotes. Be sure to join our page by clicking "Like"!

• Even if you don’t have a Twitter of Facebook account, you can still share your thoughts and opinions by going to our special chat room. Join the chat here.

• NTU will also be updating our blog, Government Bytes, as the night progresses. You can comment on each post as well! Just click on the “Post a Comment” link and speak your mind.

We look forward to seeing you online tonight at 9 p.m. EST!

NTU Foundation continues its research efforts with four new scored bills ranging the legislative spectrum. The Taxpayer’s Tab’s 21st installment also gives taxpayers a broad range of legislators from across the nation, from coast to coast and a few Midwest states.

One bill that got our attention this week was HR 6180, which would establish a muck soil conservation program. Muck soil is a top soil that is used in producing many agricultural products, from onions to celery. The legislation calls for $50 million to be spent in the first year in the form of state grants. Farmers who perform five requirements (mentioned in the Tab) would be paid up to $500 per acre to use the muck soil.

The latest Taxpayer’s Tab includes the following bills:

• HR 6229/S 3595, Developing Innovative Partnerships and Learning Opportunities that Motivate Achievement (DIPLOMA) Act
• HR 5780, Reduce and End our Deficits Using Commonsense Eliminations (REDUCE) in the Energy Program Act
• HR 5893, Investing in American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010
• HR 6180/S 3809, a bill to amend the conservation provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985 to promote the conservation and improvement of the soil, water, and wildlife resources of lands containing muck soils, and for other purposes

Throughout the week, NTUF will tweet summaries, spending report links, and updates concerning the latest Congressional research.

Today, NTU joined with the liberal group U.S. PIRG to release a report called "Toward Common Ground: Bridging the Political Divide to Reduce Spending." This report debuts a list of $600 billion worth of specific federal spending reductions. With all the talk about debt and deficits, we saw an opportunity to put together a true left-right coalition in order to begin the conversation about the difficult choices we’ll have to make as a nation. We thought it would be useful to reach across the ideological divide to identify specific items that we could cut from the federal budget without reducing the quality of government services or neglecting the government's basic commitments.

The U.S. PIRG and NTU study identifies 30 specific, actionable items to cut in federal spending, including:    

• $62 billion in savings by eliminating wasteful subsidies to farmers and large corporations.
• $354 billion in savings from reforming inefficient contract and acquisition procedures.
• $77 billion in savings by improving execution of existing government programs as well as eliminating unneeded programs.
• $108 billion in savings from ending low-priority or unnecessary weapons systems, along with rightsizing other programs.

While we're under no illusions that every group or individual on the left and right will agree with our list, we think that it can serve as something of a consensus document from which Congress and the President's Fiscal Commission can work. Simply stated, we can't continue to kick the can down the road on reducing the size of the federal government.  In order to head off a debt crisis like that facing Greece today, we need to begin scaling back our unsustainable spending habits.  This list can help to do that without starting a political food fight.

A little more on Big Ethanol.  This week Gregg Easterbrook has a piece on Reuters.com that touches all of the bases:  subsidies, environmental benefits, and taxes.  Give it a read.

I could not agree more.

Robert Bryce has a great piece on ethanol in The Examiner.  If you haven't read it, please do so.  Here are the closing paragraphs:

It's time to end the corn ethanol boondoggle. Despite decades of lavish subsidies, ethanol has done nothing to cut oil imports. Rather than further compound the mistakes that have already been made by increasing the volume of ethanol in the U.S. motor fuel supply, the EPA and Congress should recognize that ethanol is not, and has never been, an energy program.

Instead, it is a pernicious example of how agriculture subsidies are promulgated and expanded for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.

I could not agree more.

The NTU Foundation wants you to be the most informed voter, armed with the best, up-to-date information, as America heads into the mid-term election season. The Taxpayer’s Tab is one of the tools NTUF provides to keep track of Congress' potential spending agenda. This will be our 12^th issue in which we highlight the highest and lowest cost bills, as well as the most cosponsored bills working their way through Congress and into law. In those 12 issues, we have articled over 40 bills and shown you the ways our BillTally data can help you in deciding if the priorities your legislator supports match your own.

As our country heads into one of the most contentious election cycles in recent memory, be sure to keep the Taxpayer’s Tab at the top of you inboxes and forefront of your minds. NTUF’s research is independent and nonpartisan. We do the grunt work so you can cut through the campaign rhetoric about Congress's spending habits.

The new issue of the Taxpayer’s Tab tackles yet another bill eliminating waiting periods for Medicare and Social Security Disability Insurance. Then we navigate through some of the Department of Defense’s weapons programs in a bill calling for their cancellation. A bill requiring earmark transparency is also showcased in our “Most Friended” section. Last, but not least, our Wildcard section centers on a bill which would continue and expand price reporting for businesses in the dairy and meat industries.

The specific bills of The Taxpayer’s Tab #12 include:

• HR 2881, Kenny Callahan Act
• HR 5784, Reduce and End our Deficits Using Commonsense Eliminations (REDUCE) in the Defense Programs Act
• S 3335/HR5258, Earmark Transparency Act
• S 3656/HR 5852, Mandatory Price Reporting Act

To help everyone get the most out of this upcoming election and The Taxpayer’s Tab, encourage your friends and family to join NTUF, follow NTUF on Twitter, subscribe to the Tab, and forward this important newsletter to others. Remember, transparency is everyone’s business and an issue in and of itself this election.