- Medicare and Medicaid waste between $110 and $150 billion a year.
- Social Security wastes over $100 billion a year.
- The IRS fails to collect over $380 billion from tax evaders every year.
- Federal food stamp and unemployment benefits easily waste over $20 billion every year.
- The National Science Foundation uses its $8 billion budget every year to study such irrelevant topics like when did dogs become man’s best friend, creating a scale model of the 1964 New York World’s Fair, studying if online dating sites are racist, a study to determine if playing Farmville helps adults develop and maintain relationships, a study on why the same college basketball teams seem to dominate March Madness, etc. (see: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/06/national-science-foundation-wasting.html for more details.)
- Corporate welfare programs give away billions of dollars every year of taxpayer wealth to major corporations that could survive quite nicely without them (see: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/07/mining-federal-treasury-corporate.html)
- One of our sources tallied up the wasteful government spending on trivial efforts over the past ten years and came up with $1.2 TRILLION of taxpayer funds that have been totally wasted on minor efforts and studies. These programs included a study on why people cheat, lie and act rudely on local Virginia tennis courts, a study costing more than $600,000 that was spent on researching the sex lives of South African ground squirrels, and a $1,500,000 Federal program to promote silk production in Laos, just a small sampling of the waste. (see http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/05/wasteful-government-spending-week.html)
- The waste and inefficiency is so rampant that we have easily identified over $9 TRILLION of wealth savings that could be realized over the next decade if the Washington political class focused just on the major priorities, needs, and problems of our times. (see: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-presidency-plan.html).
How do we know they do not care or do not know how to stop the insane spending? Senator Tom Coburn has published his annual “Wastebook” for 2012, which again proves the idiotic Washington spending and waste goes on unabated. Today and tomorrow we will look at one hundred of the wasteful spending sources that the Senator has uncovered and written about, 50 today and 50 tomorrow.
The following day we will also review some of the insightful opinions of the Senator who may be one of the only politicians in Washington who understand that we cannot afford to keep wasting wealth like this and actually has the guts to stand up in the face of the waste onslaught. We will recommend several easy-to-understand steps that are needed to stop the insanity that the Senator has uncovered.
But let’s examine the first 50 instances of totally useless Federal spending and waste:
1) The NFL, NHL, and PGA all classify themselves as non-profit organizations. Taxpayers may be losing at least $89.9 million a year subsidizing these tax loopholes for professional sports leagues that generate billions of dollars
annually in profits, despite professional teams often being owned by billionaires who pay some of their players millions of dollars in salary.
2) Lax accounting and audit controls and mismanagement in the food stamp program results in billions of dollars annually being spent not on healthy meals for hungry kids and needy families but instead wasted on questionable or illegal expenditures, including Starbucks, alcohol, diapers, and guns.
3) The Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission voted again this year to keep the rarely used Lake Murray State Park Airport open. It is not needed to serve the local markets or citizens, it is kept open solely to receive $150,000 in Federal funds it can then transfer to other airports. The airport has just one landing per month, i.e. it is essentially unused by planes and used only to fulfill some silly Federal guideline to get taxpayer money it does not deserve.
4) A USAID development program in Morocco included pottery classes that was funded using American taxpayer wealth.
5) Despite skyrocketing national debt, the Federal government is spending $947,000 via NASA to study what food astronauts could eat on Mars, by simulating a
Mars outpost at a barren location in Hawaii. When and if this research might be needed is far, far off in the future if ever.
6) A $325,000 NSF grant was used to create a robot squirrel to study how squirrels and rattlesnakes interact. What makes this expenditure doubly bad is that apparently the American taxpayer has already funded a similar program in the past, making this study doubly unnecessary and wasteful.
7) USDA gave a $300,000 grant to a caviar producer in Idaho for marketing purposes. I wonder how big a market there is for caviar in Idaho, both from a production and consumption perspective?
8) The American taxpayer paid out $3.3 million to bail out a local Arkansas tourist boat company that was going out of business.
9) The Department of Transportation gave an Alaskan tribe millions to start a ferry business that competes with existing private ferry services. Apparently, these other businesses, who never asked for or received a government handout, are now struggling to survive in the face of this government subsidized ferry service.
10) The Department of Health and Human Services wastes $2 million annually in maintenance fees for grant accounts that are either expired or empty of funds, all because the Department never got around to closing out the unneeded accounts.
11) If the Treasury Department stopped producing pennies, it would save the American taxpayer $70 million a year since it now costs $0.024 to produce a $.01 penny.
12) $1.5 billion is spent every year, a total that is growing every year, for the Federal government program that provides free cell phones for people that qualify for Federal welfare programs.
13) State officials used a Federal stimulus grant to purchase massive, overpowered routers that are too big and unnecessary for rural schools, libraries, and government offices, wasting $24 million in the process.
14) The National Science Foundation spent $516,000 on a research program that created a computer game simulating a high school “Prom Night” and the week leading up to the prom night.
15) Paper and pulp companies are still taking advantage of a loophole, costing the American taxpayer $268 million a year, allowing these companies to cash in their black liquor byproduct as an alternative fuel under a tax credit intended for vehicular fuel alternatives, not paper production byproducts.
16) Beverly Hills sold part of its Federal Community Development Block Grant funds to a neighboring town for a discounted 70 cents on the dollar to get around Federal
requirements.
17) The Department Of Energy is still running a Cold War era nuclear nonproliferation program, at a cost of $15 million a year, that was established to recruit new scientists in Russia.
18) NASA has spent $1.6 million to develop a number of video games.
19) The Department of Agriculture spends $49,337 a year to have a Smokey The Bear hot air balloon at festivals and pubic events in the southwest United States but claims it does not have enough funds for more DC 10 tanker planes to fight forest fires.
20) The National Science Foundation (why does this organization’s name keep popping up when discussing waste?) spent $30,000 of taxpayer wealth on a study to see whether people can determine another person’s sexual orientation with just a glance.
21) Federal agencies could save billions every year if they did a better job pooling their procurements to leverage their buying power.
22) The National Endowment for the Arts spends $1 million a year to fund book clubs, movie screenings, theatrical productions, fishing lessons, and concerts.
23) Housing and Urban Development gave $505,000 to a pet shampoo company for machinery to make pet toothpaste and shampoo.
24) A business park in New York received $1.3 million of Federal funds to make a road for a Pepsico yogurt factory.
25) $350,000 was spent by the National Science Foundation (Again?!?) to study of how golfers can putt better if they envision the hole is bigger.
26) $13,000 of anti-obesity Federal funds were sent to Maine to pay for a giant graffiti mural focused on sustainability.
27) Federal taxpayer funds were used to rehabilitate a covered bridge in Ohio, a bridge that is not used by cars or tied to any walking or bike trail.
28) Medicare and the Veterans’ Administration pay for health care twice for veterans who have Medicare Advantage but still seek care from the VA, which cannot seek reimbursement from Medicare.
29) A Department of Transportation grant paid $142,419 to provide free bus rides during the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis even though average prices for those Super Bowl tickets are around $3,000.
30) $57,000 of Federal education funds were misused in Texas to send fifth-grade boys to a movie theater to see “Red Tails” while girls were left behind.
31) The National Endowment for the Humanities funding paid $40,000 for a video game simulating Thoreau’s experience at Walden Pond.
32) $10,000 worth of Department of Transportation funds were used in Michigan to buy 400 talking urinal cakes to fight drunk driving. You cannot make this stuff up.
33) A cartooning school in Vermont received $220,000 of HUD funds to build a new center, though it has very few students and is unaccredited.
34) We have already covered this waste in a previous post, waste that totaled over $400 million. The State Department’s Iraq police training program has failed miserably, according the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. No objectives were created, and classes did not help Iraqis at all. The State Department will hand over to the Iraqis several building projects that ended up being unnecessary.
35) $445,444 of NSF funds were spent on a musical about biodiversity and climate change. Reviews of the play said it was boring and needed improvement.
36) $35.6 million of Federal Transportation money will help build a trolley in St. Louis that has been called the “Streetcar Named No Desire” by one local. It duplicates
existing light rail and public transportation and thus, is unnecessary for the transportation needs of local residents.
37) Congress split a new line of Navy ships between two completely different designs, increasing costs and undermining the Navy’s capabilities, wasting $148 million in the process.
38) $67,926 of EPA funds went to an anti-trash poster contest for college students, with winners getting a paid trip to New York City. Did I mention that this poster contest was for college students? Unbelievable.
39) The city of Grants Pass, Oregon, will spend $388,000 in Federal funds to build just five bus shelters in its small bus system, a per shelter cost of $77,600 per BUS SHELTER. Makes you wonder if it is heated, has indoor plumbing, and a two car garage. I would bet that you might be able to get all those features in an actual home in Grants Pass, Oregon for the same cost, if not in their bus shelters.
40) Health and Human Services spent almost $100,000 to put together a YouTube video contest to promote eating fruits and vegetables.
41) Regional FEMA officials miscalculated renovation cost of two University of Iowa buildings by including unallowable costs, leading to unnecessary
replacement of the buildings at a cost of $75.4 million.
42) The Federal government gave out $150,000 to the Strong National Museum of Play to develop an exhibit on America’s games and puzzles.
43) $1.1 million of Department of Transportation funds were used for “sidewalks to nowhere” in Florida and Michigan. In Florida, the sidewalk was a “safe route to school” that was still unsafe. In Michigan, Federal requirements forced a county to make sidewalk ramps at an intersection without sidewalks.
44) NASA paid $771,000 for a knowledge management database that has never been used.
45) The Alaska Railroad has received $38.8 million in Federal money for a tourist train to serve not the citizens of Alaska but tourists and cruise ship passengers.
46) The Agriculture Department spends about $1.5 million a year to help vineyards.
47) Medicaid providers who have unpaid taxes are still able to receive their full Medicaid reimbursements, costing taxpayers about $330 million a year due to these tax evading doctors.
48) The General Services Administration has been trying to build a $330 million court house in California for ten years even though the General Accounting Office has continually challenged the need for such a building.
49) The Department of Defense has spent $770,000 to research a new way to make beef jerky with processed meat. Other Federal money has been given to a number of beef jerky companies for other jerky projects. Has the word “jerky” ever had such a double meaning.
50) $7.3 million worth Department of Education dollars for School Improvement Grants in Washington hardly helped students, a study found, and funds were used for changes that could be made without additional funding.
Enough of this depressing material for now. We will review the other 50 waste examples tomorrow and provide a number of suggestions on how to get this fiasco under control. You know that your government has gone dysfunctional when it runs up TRILLIONS of dollars in debt but still continues to spend money on talking urinal cakes, beef jerky research, pet toothpaste subsidies, and other nonsense. Our political class has taken us down the rabbit hole of waste and has no clue or desire to get us out.
We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
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