$200 Million For Digital Literacy

The Federal Communications Commission is considering a proposal to spend $200 million to create a digital literacy corps. This group of hundreds, even thousands, of trainers would fan out to schools and libraries to teach productive uses of computers for parents, students and job seekers.

Funding Fictitious Colleges and Students

In 2002, the Department of Education received an application to certify the student loan participation of the Y'Hica Institute in London, England. After approving the certification, the department received and approved student loan applications from three Y'Hica students and disbursed $55,000.

The education Department administrators overlooked one problem: Neither the Y'Hica Institute nor the three students who received the $55,000 existed. The fictitious college and students were created (on paper) by congressional investigators to test the Department of Education's verification procedures. All of the documents were faked, right down to naming one of the fictional loan student applicants "Susan M. Collins," after the Senator requesting the investigation.

Such carelessness helps to explain why federal student loan programs routinely receive poor management reviews from government auditors. At last count, $21.8 billion worth of student loans are in default, and too many cases of fraud are left undetected. Tracking students across federal programs, verifying loan application data with IRS income data, and implementing controls to prevent the disbursement of loans to fraudulent applicants could save taxpayers billions of dollars.

Duplication & Overlap in Federal Government

Senator Tom Coburn has issued a report titled "Facts About Duplication & Overlap in the Federal Government".  Here are some examples:

• The Department of Justice (DOJ): 253 Duplicative Programs costing $1.9 billion a year
• Diesel Emissions Programs: 14 different programs costing billions each year
• Early Learning and Child Care: 45 different programs costing at least $13.3 billion a year
• Employment for People with Disabilities: 50 overlapping and duplicative programs costing approximately $3.5 billion a year
• Financial Literacy: 56 duplicative programs costing $30.7 million a year
• Housing Assistance: Over 160 duplicative programs costing $170 billion a year
• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education: 209 federal STEM programs costing approximately $3.1 billion a year
• Support for Entrepreneurs: 53 different programs costing $2.6 billion a year
• Unmanned Aircraft Programs: 15 Overlapping Programs estimated to cost approximately $37.5 billion between FY2012 and FY2016

Unrecovered Federal Grant Money

At the end of fiscal year 2011, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) identified more than $794 million in funding remaining in expired grant accounts—accounts that were more than 3 months past the grant end date and had no activity for 9 months or more—in the Payment Management System (PMS). GAO found that undisbursed balances remained in some grant accounts several years past their expiration date: $110.9 million in undisbursed funding remained unspent more than 5 years past the grant end date, including $9.5 million that remained unspent for 10 years or more. GAO also found $126 million in grant accounts in the Automated Standard Application for Payments (ASAP) for which there had been no activity for 2 years or more, including $11 million that remained inactive for 5 years or more. Click here for full report.

$18 Billion For Job Training

A study commissioned by Sen. Tom Coburn is casting doubt on whether taxpayers’ $18 billion annual investment in federal jobs training programs is paying off. “The vast majority of money we spend in job training doesn’t go to job training, it goes to employ people in those job training federal programs,” Coburn told  Fox News.

The 2011 Government Accountability Office study he commissioned, which examined programs in fiscal year 2009, found an overlapping and duplicative maze of 47 federal jobs programs run by nine agencies. Some were rife with mismanagement, waste, fraud, abuse and corruption. The study found:

• Some job training participants spent their days sitting on a bus.
• Some were trained for jobs that didn’t exist.
• Others were paid to sit through educational sessions about jobs they already had.
• High school students were knowingly exposed to the cancer-causing agent asbestos as part of a job training program.
• Funds were misspent to pay a contractor for ghost employees and to purchase video games.
• Job training administrators spent federal funds on extravagant meals and bonuses for themselves.
• In one state, workforce agency employees took more than 100 gambling trips to casinos mostly during work hours.

More Wasteful Spending on Solar Energy

The Nevada Journal has reported yet another example of wasteful spending on green energy: A Canadian company will receive up to $50 million in federal stimulus dollars for a Nevada solar plant — even though the plant will employ only two people! The article highlights some other striking statistics:

• According to the Department of Energy’s own estimates, the section 1603 energy payment program, part of the President’s stimulus package, created only 5,500 permanent full-time jobs nationwide despite spending nearly $10 billion—meaning that that each job cost taxpayers about $2 million!
  
• Energy from the solar plant will cost ratepayers nearly three times more than energy from natural gas. (This is thanks to mandates from the state government; it enacted a Renewable Portfolio Standard of 25 percent “green” energy by 2025.)

$50 Billion Food Stamp Program

In 2009 the food stamp program paid out approximately $50 billion in benefits; $2.2 billion of that total, however, was paid in error. More than 80 percent of the payment errors were overpayments, equivalent to $1.8 billion in program transactions, according to Kay E. Brown of the Government Accountability Office.

$1 Coin Could Save Taxpayers Billions

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) continues to recommend the elimination of the $1 bill and transition to the $1 coin.  The report indicates that eliminating the $1 note would save the country $4.4 billion over a 30-year period, or $146 million per year.  Today’s report marked the sixth statement by GAO in favor of switching to $1 coins.  Its five previous reports, published in 1990, 1993, 1995, 2000  and 2011, indicate savings of anywhere from $184 million to $522 million per year.

Most of the cost savings associated with coins comes from their comparative durability.  The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces approximately 3.4 billion $1 bills each year, each of which costs 4.2 cents to manufacture and lasts 40 months.  By comparison, the $1 coin costs between 12 and 20 cents but has a lifespan of 30 years or more.  The $1 coin also saves money because it is cheaper to handle and process.

HHS Wasteful Billion Dollar Loan Program

Health and Human Services’ (HHS) wants to create non-profit health insurers with a $3.4 billion loan program even though the Department’s own actuarial estimates suggest at least $1 billion in taxpayer dollars may inevitably be wasted. Given prior failures in government lending, including huge loans to now bankrupt Solyndra, you have to wonder if this is a good idea.

Government Funds $400,000 Study on Gay Sex in Argentina Bars

Excerpts from a Fox News article:

Government researchers are spending more than $400,000 in taxpayer money to hit the bars in Argentina. The National Institutes of Health are paying researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior while drunk -- and just what can be done about it.

An NIH official said that funds approved for the project include $275,000 for direct costs and an additional $125,000 in indirect costs, but would not elaborate. Though FOXNews.com could not confirm the median price of cervezas in Buenos Aires, that should leave a lot of money for tips.

More Wasteful Spending

It almost seems as though Congress actually enjoys inventing new ways to waste U.S. taxpayer money.  Here are some more examples:

1. A total of $3 million has been granted to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so that they can play video games such as World of Warcraft. The goal of this "video game research" is reportedly to study how "emerging forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life can help organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace."
2. The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.
3. $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.
4. A professor at Stanford University received $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love. So far one of the key findings of this "research" is that the Internet is a safer and more discreet way to find same-sex partners.
5. The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians "gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions."
6. The National Institutes of Health spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.
7. Approximately $1 million of U.S. taxpayer money was used to create poetry for the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Chicago zoos. The goal of the "poetry" is to help raise awareness on environmental issues.
8. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use. This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.
9. $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a "museum of neon signs" in Las Vegas, Nevada.
10. $35 million was reportedly paid out by Medicare to 118 "phantom" medical clinics that never even existed. Apparently these "phantom" medical clinics were established by a network of criminal gangs as a way to defraud the U.S. government.
11. The Conservation Commission of Monkton, Vermont got $150,000 from the federal government to construct a "critter crossing". Thanks to U.S. government money, the lives of "thousands" of migrating salamanders are now being saved.
12. In California, one park received $440,000 in federal funds to perform "green energy upgrades" on a building that has not been used for a decade.
13. $440,955 was spent this past year on an office for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he rarely even visits.
14. One Tennessee library was given $5,000 in federal funds to host a series of video game parties.
15. The U.S. Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on a television commercial during the Super Bowl that was so poorly produced that virtually nobody understood what is was trying to say.
16. A professor at Dartmouth University received $137,530 to create a "recession-themed" video game entitled "Layoff".
17. The National Science Foundation gave the Minnesota Zoo over $600,000 so that they could develop an online video game called "Wolfquest".
18. A pizzeria in Iowa was given $60,000 to renovate the pizzeria's facade and give it a more "inviting feel".
19. The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave one enterprising group of farmers $30,000 to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight "haycations". This one sounds like something that Dwight Schrute would have dreamed up.
20. Almost unbelievably, the National Institutes of Health was given $800,000 in "stimulus funds" to study the impact of a "genital-washing program" on men in South Africa.

Is it any wonder that only 13 percent of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing.

Foreign Aid

According to the government’s web site, www.foreignassistance.gov, Uncle Sam doles out more than $58 billion a year in foreign assistance through more than 20 agencies.

Here's what was requested in 2011:  Afghanistan ($3.9 billion), Pakistan ($3.1 billion), Israel ($3 billion), Egypt ($1.5 billion), Nigeria ($648 million), Russia ($68.7 million), China ($12.9 million), and even communist Cuba ($20 million).

Given our country's $16 trillion debt and economic problems, is this really the best use of taxpayer dollars?

Franking Privilege

While the post office is going bankrupt, members of congress have been using the "franking privilege" to mail what is essentially political advertisements at no cost to them. However, from 1988 to 2007 it cost taxpayers $113.4 million dollars. So much of these congressional mass mailings are to brag to their recipients on what a wonderful service their representative is providing and please elect me again. Another way that incumbents use taxpayer dollars to stay in office.

Federal Excess Properties

The Federal Government is the biggest property owner in the United States, and billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted each year on government properties that are no longer needed. These properties range from sheds to underutilized office buildings and empty warehouses.

Here is a government map that visualizes a sampling of about 14,000 buildings and structures currently designated as excess. This map shows just the tip of the iceberg in terms of opportunities for downsizing the Federal real estate portfolio. Under the President’s proposal, more properties, in some cases with significant market value, would be added to this map and dealt with more quickly and effectively than they are today.

A Permanent Underclass

The Washington Times has an interesting article on America's unemployed. Here is an excerpt:

The official unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, but the turmoil in the American labor market is worse than that number suggests. Bad policy and economic circumstances are combining to create a European-style permanent underclass on our shores.

In November 2009, the average length of unemployment was just over 29 weeks. In April 2012, that number was 34.5 weeks. Almost a third of the more than 13 million unemployed Americans - that is, almost 4 million people - have been idle for more than year, according to the most recent Pew Trust report. As Pew noted, the problem of long-term unemployment is worse now than it was in 2008, the official start of the Great Recession.

Congress is making the situation worse by continually extending the length of unemployment benefits. When people are paid not to work, they don’t work. Pew projects spending for jobless compensation for 2012 at $99 billion, which is a big number even by profligate Washington standards.

Click here for the full article.

Government Issues Study of a Study About Studies

The Pentagon was inundated with so many studies in 2010 that it commissioned a study to determined how much it cost to produce all those studies. Now the Government Accountability Office has reviewed the Pentagon’s study and concluded in a report this week that it’s a flop.

The GAO found only nine studies that had been scrutinized by the Pentagon review, but the military was unable to “readily retrieve documentation” for six of  the reports. The cost of the study of the study of the studies was not available from the GAO.

Only the government could do something like this. Unfortunately, it's the taxpayer who gets stuck with the bill.

Federal Government Wastes Billions On Duplicate Services

 A new report by a federal watchdog agency has found “tens of billions of dollars” is being wasted on duplication, overlap and fragmentation of federal government programs.

The Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, highlighted 51 areas where federal programs could achieve greater savings and become more effective. A similar report last year, the first annual report on government duplication issued by the agency, highlighted 81 areas — but a year later, the Obama administration has largely implemented only four of the GAO's suggestions, the report said.

Among GAO's findings: 209 different science, technology, engineering and math education programs are run by 13 different federal agencies, with 173 programs overlapping with another program.

Stimulus Spending

In February, the Congressional Budget Office published its latest report on the “estimated impact” of the stimulus. Although it had originally estimated the stimulus would cost $787 billion, CBO now says it will cost $831 billion.

In the second quarter of 2012, CBO estimates, somewhere between 200,000 to 1.2 million people have jobs they otherwise would not have were it not for the stimulus. Assuming, optimistically, that the number is 1.2 million, that means each of those jobs cost taxpayers $692,500.

Taxing or borrowing $692,500 from the private sector to create a single job is simply not a cost effective way of putting America back to work. The long-term debt burden of that $692,500 swamps any benefit that the single job created might provide.

TSA Waste

A U.S. House of Representatives report indicates that the TSA is wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars by inefficiently deploying screening equipment and technology to commercial airports:

• As of February 15, 2012, TSA stored approximately 5,700 pieces of security equipment in warehouses at TSA’s Transportation Logistics Center (TLC) in Dallas, Texas.  
• As of February 15, 2012, the total value of TSA’s equipment in storage was, according to TSA officials, estimated at $184 million. However, when questioned by Committee staff, TSA’s warehouse staff and procurement officials were unable to provide the total value of equipment in storage.
• TSA’s annual costs for leasing and managing the TLC are more than $3.5 million.
• Committee staff discovered that 85% of the approximately 5,700 major transportation security equipment currently warehoused at the TLC had been stored for longer than six months; 35% of the equipment had been stored for more than one year. One piece of equipment had been in storage more than six years – 60% of its useful life.
• As of February 2012, Committee staff discovered that TSA had 472 Advanced Technology 2 (AT2) carry-on baggage screening machines at the TLC and that more than 99% have remained in storage for more than nine months; 34% of AT2s have been stored for longer than one year.
• Committee staff estimate that the delayed deployment of TSA’s state-of-the-art screening technologies has resulted in a massive depreciated loss of equipment utility at an estimated cost to taxpayers of nearly $23 million.
• TSA warehouse staff was unable to provide the total annual cost for disposition of equipment.
• The limited use of direct shipping from manufacturer to deployment location has resulted in the overutilization of the Transportation Logistics Center and excessive annual deployment costs of between $50-$100 million.

Click here for full report.

Illegal Immigrants Benefiting From Billion-dollar Tax Loophole

Last year undocumented workers received approximately $4.2 billion from the government. "We found, in many cases, they're getting these tax credits for nieces and nephews and children who aren't even in the United States," explained Bob Segall with WTHR in Indianapolis.

The Internal Revenue Service says everyone who is employed in the United States – even those who are working here illegally – must report income and pay taxes. Of course, undocumented workers are not supposed to have a social security number. So for them to pay taxes, the IRS created what's called an ITIN, an individual taxpayer identification number. A 9-digit ITIN number issued by the IRS provides both resident and nonresident aliens with a unique identification number that allows them to file tax returns.

The loophole is called the Additional Child Tax Credit. It's a fully-refundable credit of up to $1000 per child, and it's meant to help working families who have children living at home.  But 13 Investigates has found many undocumented workers are claiming the tax credit for kids who live in Mexico – lots of kids in Mexico.

Click here for full article.

Administration Boosts Estimate of Auto Bailout Losses to $23.6 Billion

The Treasury Department dramatically boosted its estimate of losses from its $85 billion auto industry bailout by more than $9 billion in the face of General Motors Co.'s steep stock decline. In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.  Click here for complete article.

$48 Billion Medicare Fraud

Last year, "improper payments" resulted in $48 billion in losses to the Medicare program, nearly 10 percent of the $526 billion in payments the program made, according to a Government Accountability Office report last March. Click here to view complete Reuters' article.

Compliance With Complex Tax Code Costs Taxpayers $431.1 Billion

“U.S. taxpayers pay an estimated $431.1 billion annually, or 30% of total income taxes collected, just to comply with and administer the U.S. income tax system,” said Dr. Laffer, who rose to prominence as an economic expert during the Reagan Administration and whose name is forever linked to the ‘Laffer Curve’ tax revenue model. “Individuals and businesses spent an estimated 6.1 billion hours complying with the filing requirements of the income tax code.”

The study estimates that those 6.1 billion hours equate to $377.9 billion, compounded by direct outlays (paying professional tax preparers or purchasing tax software) estimated at $31.5 billion and IRS administrative costs running $12.4 billion. Comprehensive audits impose an additional taxpayer burden of at least $9.3 billion, bringing the total to $431.1 billion in order to comply with the complexity of the federal income tax system. These costs don’t account for the lost economic opportunities caused by the uncertainty and confusion of the tax code, nor the pain and suffering for people dealing with the IRS.

Healthcare Law Is the Embodiment of Fiscal Disaster

This is an excerpt from a Forbe's article on the new healthcare law...

The American people figured out very early in the health reform debate that you can’t create a new entitlement that finances health insurance for 30 million people and still claim the scheme will magically reduce the federal budget deficit.

Charles Blahous, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, has produced a meticulous 52-page study, The Fiscal Consequences of the Affordable Care Act, which details the health law’s spending and revenue projections point by point.

The health law “should be expected to increase federal spending obligations by more than $1.15 trillion over the upcoming decade and to worsen cumulative federal deficits by somewhere between $340 and $530 billion over the same period,” he writes. The Obama administration had claimed the health law would lead to deficit savings of $124 billion over the first decade.

Click here for complete article.

$1.6 Billion For Free Cell Phones

Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don't qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone. Click here for complete article.

America: A Welfare State

The average American relying on federal government assistance now receives more in benefits than the average American’s disposable personal income. The 2012 Index of Dependency on Government published by The Heritage Foundation reports Americans who rely on government receive an average $32,748 worth of benefits, surpassing the average American’s disposable personal income of $32,446. Overall, some 67.3 million Americans, or almost 22 percent, rely on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid, or other assistance.

Supporting those 67.3 million Americans costs U.S. taxpayers about $2.5 trillion each year. More than 70 percent of federal spending goes toward these dependency programs. The problem is compounded by the fact that 49.5 percent of American workers pay no federal income tax.

Subsidized Green Energy Company Struggles, Lays Off Workers — Rewards Top Executives

In the nine months since David Prystash was named Chief Financial Officer of A123 Systems — the battery manufacturer that received $390.1 million in federal and state subsidies — the company has laid off 125 employees and had a net loss of $172 million through the first three quarters of 2011.

Yet, this month A123’s Compensation Committee approved a $30,000 raise for Prystash just days after Fisker Automotive announced the U.S. Energy Department had cut off what was left of its $528.7 million loan it had previously received.

Prystash wasn’t the only executive to see a big raise this month. Robert Johnson, vice president of the energy solutions group, got a 20.7 percent pay increase going from $331,250 to $400,000, while Jason Forcier, vice president of the automotive solutions group, saw his pay increase from $331,250 to $350,000. Prystash’s raise was 8.5 percent, going from $350,000 to $380,000.

“It looks highly suspicious,” said Paul Chesser, associate fellow for the National Legal & Policy Center. “It looks like they are trying to pad their top people’s wallets in case something really bad happens.”

2.2 Million Go On Disability Since Mid-2010; Fraud Explains Falling Unemployment Rate

Click here to read an interesting article on how Social Security Disability Insurance fraud is allowing the government to claim lower unemployment rates.  Some excerpts:

• The number of workers receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) jumped 22 percent to 8.7 million in April from 7.1 million in December 2007. That helps explain as much as one quarter of the decline in the U.S. labor-force participation rate during the period, according to economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley. With a rising number of disability beneficiaries, there are both lower unemployment rates and lower participation rates.
• More than 99 percent of all SSDI beneficiaries remain in the program until retirement age, David Greenlaw, a managing director in New York at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a March research note, citing government data. The program provides an average of $1,111 in monthly income to eligible workers with a physical or mental impairment that will last at least 12 months or result in death. Costs have increased with the rolls: The program spent $132 billion last year, more than twice as much as in 2000. Unemployment insurance requires that applicants search for job opportunities, while disability insurance requires they be unable to work.
• Less-stringent screening procedures, more attractive benefits and a waning need for less-skilled workers have bolstered SSDI rolls. In addition, “difficult-to-verify disorders,” including muscle pain and mental illness, more easily qualify for SSDI under program reforms. Based on current trends, 7 percent of the nonelderly adult population could be receiving disability benefits by 2018.

Fannie & Freddie Mae

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is asking the federal government for nearly $4.6 billion in aid to cover its deficit. Taxpayers have spent more than $150 billion to prop up Fannie and Freddie, the most expensive bailout of the 2008 financial crisis. The government estimates that figure could top $259 billion to support the companies through 2014 after subtracting dividend payments.

Fannie Mae and McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac own or guarantee about half of all mortgages in the U.S., or nearly 31 million home loans. Along with other federal agencies, they backed nearly 90 percent of new mortgages over the past few years.

Fannie and Freddie buy home loans from banks and other lenders, package them with bonds with a guarantee against default and sell them to investors around the world. The companies nearly folded more than three years ago because of big losses on risky mortgages they purchased.

Vegas Rail Plan Seeks $4.9 Billion Federal Loan

Here is an excerpt from an Associated Press article...

On a dusty, rock-strewn expanse at the edge of the Mojave Desert, a company linked to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to build a bullet train that would rocket tourists from the middle of nowhere to the gambling palaces of Las Vegas.

Privately held DesertXpress is on the verge of landing a $4.9 billion loan from the Obama administration to build the 150 mph train, which could be a lifeline for a region devastated by the housing crash or a crap shoot for taxpayers weary of Washington spending.

The vast park-and-ride project hinges on the untested idea that car-loving Californians will drive about 100 miles from the Los Angeles area, pull off busy Interstate 15 and board a train for the final leg to the famous Strip.

Click here for the complete article. My question is:  "if this is such a good idea, why cannot the funds be raised through the private sector - why does the taxpayer have to be responsible for the loan guarantee".  It's a rhetorical question in that private investors have to be convinced the plan will work and make money and DesertXpress probably cannot do that.  And of course, there would be no special interest groups involved that would reward the politicians for their favor.  Look at what happened to the taxpayer's money that was invested in the now bankrupt Solyndra.

Top 10 Examples of Government Waste

Click here to view the Heritage Foundation's "Top 10 Examples of Government Waste"...

1. The Missing $25 Billion
2. Unused Flight Tickets Totaling $100 Million
3. Embezzled Funds at the Department of Agriculture
4. Credit Card Abuse at the Department of Defense
5. Medicare Overspending
6. Funding Fictitious Colleges and Students
7. Manipulating Data to Encourage Spending
8. State Abuse of Medicaid Funding Formulas
9. Earned Income Tax Credit Over-payments
10. Redundancy Piled on Redundancy

Flying High On Your Dime

A Government Accountability Office report obtained by CBS News shows federal workers are breaking the rules by treating themselves to expensive upgrades. In one year, federal workers bought 53,000 premium-class airline tickets at a cost of 230 million tax dollars. Investigators say two out of every three of those upgrades were improper - a full $146 million worth.

Examples:

• 21 employees from the U.S. Trade Representative's office. If they'd flown to their Hong Kong meeting on coach like they were supposed to, it would've cost $31,000. Instead, they treated themselves to premium class for $99,000. That's $68,000 extra for just the one trip. 
• An Agriculture Department official flew from Washington, D.C. to Switzerland. Coach would've cost $900 but he scored a business class seat for $7,500.
• And when a Foreign Agricultural Service executive took 10 trips to Geneva, Paris and elsewhere, it would have totaled less than $9,000 in coach. But with his luxury upgrades, it was $62,000. The GAO called the $53,000 dollar difference "abusive."

Military Spending Waste: Up To $60 Billion In Iraq & Afghanistan

An independent panel investigating U.S. wartime spending estimates as much as $60 billion in U.S. funds has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade through lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and payoffs to warlords and insurgents.

In its final report to Congress, the Commission on Wartime Contracting said the figure could grow as U.S. support for reconstruction projects and programs wanes, leaving both countries to bear the long-term costs of sustaining the schools, medical clinics, barracks, roads and power plants already built with American tax dollars.

Overall, the commission said spending on contracts and grants to support U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to exceed $206 billion by the end of the 2011 budget year. Based on its investigation, the commission said contracting waste in Afghanistan ranged from 10 percent to 20 percent of the $206 billion total. Fraud during the same period ran between 5 percent and 9 percent of the total, the report said.

Over-regulation

Here's an excerpt for an article by John Stossel titled "Everybody out of the pool"...

Every year, federal government bureaucrats work hard to come up with some 80,000 pages of new and proposed regulations. One rule that just went effect, which you can find by flipping to page 56,236 of the 2010 regulations, will require all hotels with a pool -- or a hot tub -- to install wheelchair accessible ramps or lifts into the water.

But because of another monster law, the Americans With Disabilities Act, hotels already have portable ramps that can be placed in the pool at the request of a handicapped person. They're rarely used. "We've never used our pool lift... Not in 15 years," Greg Miller, the manager of the Royal Palms Resort and Spa in Phoenix, told us.

Despite that, this year, the Department of Justice, decided that portable pool lifts are no longer enough. Every resort must now add a permanent ramp or lift to every hot tub or pool, or face a fine of up to $55,000.

More money for lawyers! Fewer people swimming! Higher hotel room charges! They are a few of the things we get from the 80,000 pages of new government regulation we got this year.

Click here for full article.

Bailout Losses

The latest inspector general report says total bailout losses so far equal about $133 billion with about 19 percent of that loss coming from the automotive industry.  Over time, some of that money may be recouped, but total losses are expected to be from $50 billion to $75 billion, and they could be higher. The total bailout cost for automakers to taxpayers is expected to be about $25 billion. Since 1990 the UAW has given $27,371,075 to Democrat candidates and $184,500 to Republicans according to the database Opensecrets.org.

Farm Subsidies

The Washington Post has identified more than $15 billion in wasteful, unnecessary and redundant spending:

• The largest annual subsidy, called direct and countercyclical payments, is given to farmers regardless of what crops they grow — or whether they grow anything at all. The Post found that, since 2001, at least $1.3 billion was paid to landowners who had planted nothing since 2000. Among the beneficiaries were homeowners in new developments whose backyards used to be rice fields.
• For the 2005 corn crop, the federal government spent about $4.8 billion to compensate farmers for low corn prices. That was $3.8 billion more than needed to give them the government-guaranteed price. The program has cost taxpayers $29 billion since 1998.
• A 2002 program aimed at helping those facing a serious drought gave $635 million to ranchers and dairy farmers who had moderate or no drought. Some ranchers got money because they lived in counties declared disaster areas after debris fell to earth from the space shuttle Columbia. 
• The government spent billions to expand crop insurance coverage and eliminate the need for annual disaster payments. But taxpayers spent about $9 billion for disaster payments anyway — often to the same farmers. Big beneficiaries of the program were 16 private insurance companies.
• The multibillion-dollar farm subsidy system often is touted by Congress as a way to save small family farms. Instead, those policies are helping to accelerate their demise, because owners of large farms receive the most subsidies and often use the money to acquire more land. 
• Federal rules limit the total amount that farms can receive from the three primary farm programs to $180,000 annually. But for the 2004 crop year about $817 million was sent to farms that had already reached their limits.

Click here for more info.

Overpriced Helicopter Parts

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports that Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation overcharged the Department of Defense (DOD) $11.8 million for spare parts.  Some examples of spare parts purchased for prices higher than what is "fair and reasonable" include:

• A charge of $284.46 per item for a flush door ring that should have cost $8.37, that resulted in $195,276 in overcharges.
• A charge of $7,814.48 per item for a rotor that should have cost $1,536.65, that resulted in $686,293 in overcharges.

Moreover, OIG found examples of items that the DOD procured through Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation that were already in the military warehouses, including 34 of the rotors that the Defense Logistics Agency had already purchased at the lower price.

Senator Tom Carper stated that "We have known for years that the Department of Defense is unable to audit its books and is woefully behind in meeting Congress' requirement that it be audit-ready by 2017. Further compounding this significant problem is the fact that the Department of Defense's inventory system is just as dysfunctional as its accounting system, resulting in a minimum of a billion dollars worth of inventory that the Department doesn't need being on order at any given time".

California's Proposition 29

Proposition 29 is another example of how government's seemingly noble intentions wind up doing more harm than good and leads to one more bureaucracy that increases regulation and taxes while wasting taxpayer's money.  Here are some articles that offer insight into what will happen if this legislation is passed...

• http://www.cagw.org/newsroom/waste-watcher/2012/may/californians-beware.html
• http://www.caltax.org/Proposition29FactSheetFeb2012.pdf
• http://wizbangblog.com/2012/04/19/media-misleads-on-california-prop-29/

You would think that given California's current financial crisis, they would have learned from previous such actions.

Government Jobs

Here's an excerpt from article by John Stossel on government jobs...

How good is a government job? We all know that government workers get generous pensions, job security and health benefits.

Now a USA Today analysis reports that it's almost impossible to lose a federal job. Federal Employees who work at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, or more than a dozen other government agencies "are more likely to die of natural causes than get laid off or fired...."

Death is the "primary threat" to their job security.

The federal government fired only about one-half of one percent of its entire workforce last year. In the private sector, the percentage of workers who get fired for "poor performance" is 5 times higher.

How much do you get paid with that kind of job security?  Twice as much as private sector counterparts.

Where Did The Stimulus Money Go

Click here to see where the $825 Billion stimulus was spent over the past three years.  Was this the best way to create meaningful, long lasting jobs and build the infrastructure of the country or a way for politicians to curry favor with special interest groups who would support their re-election.

"Free" Wheelchairs

Here is an excerpt from an article by John Stossel on "Free" Wheelchairs:

Medicare is going broke, but almost no one wants to cut any of it.  In my Fox Business show on "Government Healthcare Gone Wrong," I reported how tax money is generously given to people who buy power wheelchairs. Commercials say you can get them at "little or no cost to you!" It's true. And about 170,000 people did last year!

But of course there is a cost, and taxpayers pick up the tab--about $700 Million last year.

Not all of them really needed a $3000 power wheel chair. Fraud and overspending has been a problem for the past decade. According to the US Inspector General, more than half of people who got the power chairs in 2007 never proved a need for them.

Click here for the full report.

"Porker of the Month" Hall of Shame

"Porker of the Month" is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.  Click here to see a list of past recipients prepared by the Citizens Against Government Waste.

City Comptroller Steals $53 Million

Federal prosecutors say in an indictment that a former financial officer for the city of Dixon in northern Illinois stole millions more than an initial investigation had uncovered.

Tuesday's indictment accuses Rita Crundwell of stealing more than $53 million from the city since 1990. In an initial criminal complaint filed upon her April 17 arrest, prosecutors had accused her of siphoning $30 million in public funds to a secret account she controlled.

Crundwell is accused of using the money to fund her successful horse-breeding operations and a lavish lifestyle that included expensive jewelry and luxury vehicles.

Senator Coburn's Wastebook 2011

Here is the Table of Contents to Senator Tom Coburn's Wastebook 2011...

1. Politicians Partying on the Taxpayer Dime – (Presidential Election Campaign Fund) $35.38 Million
2. Mangled Mango Effort Could Hurt Farmers It Meant to Help – (Pakistan) $30 Million
3. Poor Planning Hobbles Air Force Green Energy Effort – (Department of Defense) $14 Million
4. Subsidy Program for Small Airports Fails to Help Most Recipients Achieve Sustainable Air Service – (Federal Aviation Administration) $6 Million
5. Paying for Pancakes – (Washington, D.C.) $765,828
6. The Super-Bridge to Nowhere – (Alaska) $15.3 Million
7. Dead Federal Employees Continue to Get Benefits Checks – (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) $120 Million
8. Extreme Home Makeover: Federal Highway Funds to Transform Abandoned "Rock House" into Visitors Center - (Oklahoma) $529,689
9. Video Game Preservation – (New York) $113,277
10. Millions In Foreign Aid to… China? – (Department of State & U.S. Agency for International Development) $17.80 Million

Click here for the full report.

Million Dollar Wasteland

The federal government’s largest housing construction program for the poor has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars on stalled or abandoned projects and routinely failed to crack down on derelict developers or the local housing agencies that funded them.

Nationwide, nearly 700 projects awarded $400 million have been idling for years, a Washington Post investigation found. Some have languished for a decade or longer even as much of the country struggles with record-high foreclosures and a dramatic loss of affordable housing.

• Local housing agencies have doled out millions to troubled developers, including novice builders, fledgling nonprofits and groups accused of fraud or delivering shoddy work.
• Checks were cut even when projects were still on the drawing boards, without land, financing or permits to move forward. In at least 55 cases, developers drew HUD money but left behind only barren lots.
• Overall, nearly one in seven projects shows signs of significant delay. Time and again, housing agencies failed to cancel bad deals or alert HUD when projects foundered.
• HUD has known about the problems for years but still imposes few requirements on local housing agencies and relies on a data system that makes it difficult to determine which developments are stalled.
• Even when HUD learns of a botched deal, federal law does not give the agency the authority to demand repayment. HUD can ask local authorities to voluntarily repay, but the agency was unable to say how much money has been returned.

Click here for more information.

The Pork Report

Senator Tom Coburn, MD has an excellent web page titled the "The Pork Report" which lists how politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists are spending your tax dollars. Here's an example from the March 7 edition identifying at least $70,224,110 in wasteful Washington spending:

• $1 million lottery winner who bought a new home and car receiving food stamps; “I thought that they would cut me off, but since they didn’t, I thought maybe it was okay because I’m not working.” click here to read more
• Part of an $11 million grant intended to provide business attire to 400 low-income job-seekers helped only two people click here to read more
• Congressional staff receive pay bonuses click here to read more
• Detroit paying city employees overtime to go on a spending spree with federal cash; The city has accumulated nearly $70 million in unspent community development and if it isn’t spent, the city risks not get as much money in future years click here to read more
• Party in the USDA: Agriculture Secretary kicks off department’s 150th anniversary the commemoration and USDA field offices across the country will celebrate all year click here to read more
• Massachusetts anti-poverty agency misspent up to $224,110 in federal grants, including pay to top exec who spent afternoons playing video poker and card games at casino click here to read more
• USDA rural development grant paying for a gateway arch at the entry of an Oregon town with less than 10,000 residents click here to read more
• Naked Cow Dairy receives USDA grant to promote its cheese even though it doesn’t even have the equipment to make cheese on a commercial scale click here to read more
• Federal funds pay to give store fronts and building facades in Texas a facelift click here to read more

Click here for more examples.

NOAA’s $300K “Love Boat”

Senator Scott Brown is demanding an investigation into abuses at NOAA, the National Oeanic and Atmospheric Administration.

At the heart of the NOAA scandals is the corruption of the agency’s Asset Forfeiture Fund. As chronicled by the Commerce Department’s Inspector General, senior NOAA staff failed to maintain adequate controls over the millions of dollars that passed through this fund.

For example, NOAA employees manipulated and evaded purchasing controls so they could obtain a $300,000 luxury fishing boat that was used to conduct weekend getaways, alcohol·fueled parties, and other joy rides. Senior NOAA fisheries leadership authorized the purchase of this party boat despite the written warnings of a NOAA procurement attorney. Incredibly, NOAA employees chose to mislead the Inspector General when questioned about the use of the boat by family and friends.

But NOAA employees were not content with spending fishermen’s fine money on a party boat. They also used those fines to take trips to exotic locations like Kuala Lumpur and Norway. These conferences were attended by the government contractors who set the fines that financed the NOAA employees’ travel. Some of these trips included the very judges who approved those fines. These contractors have refused to answer questions about whether their own travel was paid for out of the fines they set.

Click here for more information.

Waste, Fraud & Mismanagement in California

California, like the U.S. government, is having major financial problems.  Here is a list of some questionable spending for 2010 put together by the California Taxpayers' Association:

• City of Bell Leaders Padded Salaries With Money Intended for Low-Income Housing (October '10)
• More Than $69 Million in State Welfare Benefits Drawn Out of State, Including on Cruise Ships (October '10)
• Government Workers' Massive Compensation Packages Detailed (September '10)
• Irvine District Spent $800,000 More Than Necessary for School Construction, Court Finds (September '10)
• Small Southern California City Pays Attorney $500,000 Annually (August '10)
• Los Angeles Transportation Department Wasted $855,000 on Unused Equipment, City Controller Reports (August '10)
• Teacher Cheats on Student Achievement Tests (August '10)
• City Officials Resign After Salary Scandal Breaks, Investigation Launched by Law Enforcement Officers (July '10)
• State Spends $2.6 Million to Rent Vacant Building for Two Years (July '10)
• Stockton School District Asked to Repay Nearly $1 Million in Unapproved Spending (July '10)
• Welfare Benefits Being Withdrawn at Strip Club ATMs (July '10)
• Auditor Says Lax Oversight of Recycling Program Cost State Nearly $2.2 Million (June '10)
• Los Angeles County Probation Workers Escaped Discipline Because of Missed Deadlines (June '10)
• In Orange County, Government Lobbyists Spent $1.1 Million to Lobby Other Government Officials (June '10)
• During Budget Crisis, University of California Adds to Ranks of Highly Paid Senior Officials (June '10)
• Audits Reveal Waste in L.A. County Departments (May '10)
• UC Planning to Cut $500 Million of Administrative Waste (May '10)
• Audit Says San Francisco Transit System Could Save $3 Million a Year by Managing Employees Better (May '10)
• Audit Shows City of Los Angeles Misplaced 45 Percent of Purchases (May '10)
• More Than 33 Percent of San Francisco City Employees Paid Over $100,000 (April '10)
• San Francisco "Premium Pay" Rewards Cost $86 Million (April '10)
• Consultants Find Millions of Potential Savings at UC Berkeley (April '10)
• State Wasted $13 Million on Prison Drug Program, Auditor Says (April '10)
• Districts Spending Millions on Error-Filled Math Textbooks (April '10)
• Rocklin Gives Early Retirement Deals to City Managers, Then Rehires Them (March '10)
• Orange County Spent $842,450 on Failed Information Technology Plan (March '10)
• Teachers’ Union Sues to Get School District to Pay Teacher for Five Days at Family Reunion (March '10)
• Taxpayers Pay for Failed Waterless Urinal Experiment at Environmental Protection Agency (February '10)
• Los Angeles County Has Been Buying $40 Pens, Wasting $162,000 a Year (February '10)
• Employment Development Department Mismanagement Costs $53 Million (February '10)
• Dead People Received IHSS Benefits, Controller Reports (February '10)
• Error by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations Costs Taxpayers $7 Million (January '10)
• City Spends Big on Sculpture, Then Spends Again to Have it Removed (January '10)
• Despite Budget Problems, San Diego Assessor and Treasurer Accept Raises (January '10)
• CalTrans Buys New Vehicles That Sit Idle (January '10)

Click here to view details on the above.

Disability Payments: The Latest Example of Government Waste

Around 1,500 federal employees may have improperly received Social Security benefits, according to a new report from a government watchdog obtained by ABC News.

One beneficiary was a Transportation Security Administration screener who worked in California. In 1995, she was approved for disability payments for mood and anxiety disorders. Fast-forward eight years to when she began full-time employment as a screener, but failed to report the disqualifying change in employment status to Social Security. According to the report, SSA requested a Work Activity Report in 2005 and got no response, but continued to make payments. She continued receiving payments to the tune of $108,000 over 19 years and currently lives in a house that is listed for sale at about $1.8 million.

In another case, a postal worker who receives $23,000 in disability benefits for mood disorders is shown carrying her heavy mail bag and unloading it onto a table. This particular worker was awarded Disability Insurance beginning in 2006 for a brain tumor. Although she returned to work in 2007, she did not report her change in employment status to SSA. When the agency investigated and discovered the beneficiary had in fact been dishonest about her working status, she was informed she would be required to pay back $19,000 in benefits. She agreed to pay $100 a month. She admitted she will probably be dead before she pays back all she owes.

In all, the 1,500 federal employees cited in the report received approximately $1.7 million a month in payments -- 1,097 of them from the Disability Insurance program, 306 from the Supplemental Security Income program, and the remaining 87 from a combination of the two.

In 2008, the Disability Insurance program paid out around $104 billion in financial benefits to some 9 million beneficiaries, with the Supplemental Security Income program giving $38 billion to about 7.5 million recipients.

Green Energy Loan Failures

Because green energy companies cannot attract enough willing investors, politicians force the rest of us to “invest” (via subsidies) in them.  Here's a partial list of their track record to date:

• SunPower, after receiving $1.5 billion from DOE, is reorganizing, cutting jobs.
• First Solar, after receiving $1.46 billion from DOE, is reorganizing, cutting jobs.
• Solyndra, after receiving $535 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
• Ener1, after receiving $118.5 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
• Evergreen Solar, after receiving millions of dollars from the state of Massachusetts, filed for bankruptcy protection.
• SpectraWatt, backed by Intel and Goldman Sachs, filed for bankruptcy protection.
• Beacon Power, after receiving $43 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
• Abound Solar, after receiving $400 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
• Amonix, after receiving $5.9 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
• Babcock & Brown (an Australian company), after receiving $178 million from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
• A123 Systems, after receiving $279 million from DOE, shipped some bad batteries and is barely operating. It cut jobs.
• Solar Trust for America, after receiving a $2.1-billion loan guarantee from DOE, filed for bankruptcy protection.
• Nevada Geothermal, after receiving $98.5 million from DOE, warns of potential defaults in new SEC filings.

Government continues to think that it can do a better job of predicting the future than private enterprise and the free market but as John Stossel says "No, They Can't".

Lastly, it appears that the majority of the green energy companies that received government subsidies were major contributors to the party in power - another example of politicians using taxpayer money to stay in office.