It seems like every day I read about how government wastes money so I thought I would record them. Since I began this blog, I have been stunned by the amount of waste, fraud, and mismanagement I have found. I recognize that some government is necessary for any society to exist but without the "profit incentive" that we have in private enterprise, government continues to grow like a cancer and along with it the potential for abuse. If you ever needed a reason to limit government, just read some of the following posts.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

HIV Videos

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spent $385,005 to survey what bus riders thought of HIV videos.

Friday, June 29, 2012

$200 Million Promotion

The Department of Agriculture spent $200 million - still not real money in the nation’s capital - to promote industry groups, cooperatives, and corporations.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

$2 Million For Wine and Culinary Center

A grant for $2 million went to Washington State’s Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Sex Drive of Japanese Quail

NIH gave the University of Kentucky $175,587 to study the impact of cocaine on the sex drive of Japanese quail.

Monday, June 25, 2012

John Stossel's "If It Moves, Regulate It"

Let's say you wanted to get from New York to DC this evening. You could take the government-supported train system - which would cost you $153 or more - or you could take a bus, which gets no government subsidies, for... $19.

The cheap busses started about 15 years ago, when immigrants in Chinatown figured out that they could out-compete Amtrak and Greyhound on price by picking passengers up from the curb - and running everything without expensive bus stations.

Since then, bus companies have seen booming business. They are now, as CATO transportation expert Randal O'Toole puts it, "the nation's fastest growing transportation mode." He adds:  "They do so with almost no subsidies... Intercity buses are safe and environmentally friendly, suffering almost 80 percent fewer fatalities per passenger mile than Amtrak and using 60 percent less energy per passenger mile than Amtrak."

Sounds great!

But yesterday, my state passed two new bills that impose a slew of regulations on the busses. State Senator Daniel Squadron, who sponsored the regulations, says they are necessary because the busses create a "Wild West atmosphere."

One transportation blogger sums up some of the new regulations. Each bus will need a permit, and:  "will have to apply (and reapply every three years) under a process that can take up to a hundred fifty days. The DOT will have to do a traffic study for every. single. bus. stop. and "consult" with [government agencies] if the proposed stop would "overlap" with an existing [government] facility."

"Overlap!" Competing with government services? Can't have that!

Another rule says that a bus company must notify the government about its schedule in advance. That will make it impossible to adapt on short notice.

"One of the great advantages of buses is to be able to respond, in a short time frame, to changes in demand. Big holiday weekend for the colleges? Throw on a few more bus runs. Slow business to the beach in the winter? Cut a run here and there. No more."

And that condemnation of the regulations comes from a lefty blogger (who also complains that I "can be obnoxious") yet he still concludes: "the people drafting [the bill] are either clueless about how buses are run, or want to make it impossible to run a curbside bus operation in the city, or both."

Reagan had it right when he said:  "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

Italian Festival

The State Department spent $350,000 to underwrite an arts festival in Venice, Italy.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Christmas Trees

Michigan received $75,000 to promote Christmas trees and poinsettias.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Soap Opera

The Department of Commerce gave $936,818 to create a web TV soap opera on single moms to spur adoption of broadband.

Friday, June 22, 2012

$702,558 Vietnam Study

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided a $702,558 grant for the study of the impact of televisions and gas generators on villages in Vietnam.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

$1.6 Million Per Job

The federal government distributed $9 billion in economic “stimulus” funds to solar and wind projects in 2009-2011 that created, as the end result, 910 “direct” jobs (annual operation and maintenance positions) meaning that it cost about $9.8 million to establish each of those long-term jobs.

At the same time, those green energy projects also created about 4,600 “indirect” jobs (positions indirectly supported by the annual operation and maintenance jobs) which means they cost about $1.9 million each.

Combined (910 + 4,600 = 5,510), the direct and indirect jobs cost, on average, about $1.63 million each to produce. As in the case of Solyndra, some of those companies have gone bankrupt so the actual cost is probably higher.

Rock & Roll Documentary

Our government cut a check for $550,000 to underwrite a documentary on the impact of rock and roll on the collapse of communism.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

$1 Million HUD Grant

A HUD grant for $1 million went to a foreign architectural firm to move its headquarters from Santa Monica to Los Angeles.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Museum of Magic

$150,000 for the American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan.

Monday, June 18, 2012

$10 Million For Sesame Street In Pakistan

Our government gave $10 million to an arts organization in Pakistan to produce local episodes of Sesame Street.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Pizza Restaurant

The Department for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided a $484,000 grant to build a “Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers” restaurant in Texas.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

$18 million In Foreign Aid To China

Washington gave almost $18 million in foreign aid to China - money effectively borrowed from China.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Subsidizing Union Compensation

The Heritage Foundation has an interesting article on how the government's auto bailout was more of a subsidy to the United Automobile Union (UAW) that cost the American taxpayers $23 billion.  Here's an abstract...

"The U.S. government will lose about $23 billion on the 2008-2009 bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. President Obama emphatically defends his decision to subsidize the automakers, arguing it was necessary to prevent massive job losses. But, even accepting this premise, the government could have executed the bailout with no net cost to taxpayers. It could have—had the Administration required the United Auto Workers (UAW) to accept standard bankruptcy concessions instead of granting the union preferential treatment. The extra UAW subsidies cost $26.5 billion—more than the entire foreign aid budget in 2011. The Administration did not need to lose money to keep GM and Chrysler operating. The Detroit auto bailout was, in fact, a UAW bailout."

Click here for the full article.

$113,277 For Video Games

A check for $113,277 was cut to help the International Center for the History of Electronic Games to preserve “historic” video games.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

$529,689 Visitor Center

The Department of Transportation spent $529,689 to create a fourth visitor center around the 54 mile Talimena Scenic Drive between Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Republicans Join Democrats to Save Corporate Welfare

A lot of members of congress, especially Republicans, talk a good game when it comes to spending, limited government, free markets, etc. However, when the time comes to put their money where their mouths are, many choose to instead put other people’s money in the mouths of special interests.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) introduced three amendments to the recently passed Energy & Water appropriations bill that would have eliminated a slew of business subsidies at the Department of Energy. Unfortunately, some House Republicans teamed up with their Democratic colleagues to keep the corporate welfare spigot flowing.

Examples:
  • The largest spending cut proposal came from Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) which would have eliminated the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy account at the Department of Energy and used the $1.45 billion in savings toward deficit reduction. Like other Republicans, McClintock argued that this account needlessly spends money on questionable private investments that have not led to any measurable returns. But the House rejected McClintock’s amendment in a 113-275 vote in which 113 Republicans voted for it but 107 Republicans joined every Democrat in opposition.
  • Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) proposed ending all nuclear energy research subsidies to private companies which would have saved $514 million and used that money to lower the deficit. But the House rejected that amendment in a 106-281 vote that divided Republicans 91-134. 
  • McClintock also proposed language cutting fossil energy research subsidies which would have saved $554 million. But the House killed that amendment 138-249 as Republicans split again 102-123.
  • Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and McClintock proposed shutting down the Department of Energy’s Title 17 loan guarantee program. That’s the program that gave us Solyndra. The amendment failed 136-282 with 127 Republicans joining 155 Democrats to defeat the amendment.

$120 Million To Dead Federal Employees

The Office of Personnel Management sent $120 million to dead federal employees (they probably did less harm than the live ones).

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Bridge To Nowhere

Although the famed “Bridge to Nowhere” might never be built, Uncle Sam still shelled out $15.3 million in project costs, including a 14-minute promotional video, on top of $50 million already absorbed by the Knik Arm Bridge.

Monday, June 11, 2012

IHOP

A federal grant for $765,828 went to bring an International House of Pancakes franchise to Washington, D.C.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

$6 Million To Subsidize Airports

The Federal Aviation Administration devoted $6 million to subsidize air service at small, underused airports.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Burned By Biofuels

Here are excerpts from a Washington Times editorial...

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandated that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implement a Renewable Fuel Standard forcing fuel refiners to dilute their petroleum products with vegetable oil, corn, algae and animal fat so companies that label themselves “green” would reap a financial windfall. Refiners who can’t make those substances on their own are allowed to buy renewable-fuel credits to meet their federal quota. Each credit carries a 38-digit renewable identification number (RIN) as proof of purchase. The credits can be traded.

As this is an entirely artificial market that serves no purpose other than to make politicians and their political donors happy, it’s rife with fraud. Since November, the EPA has claimed 140 million invalid RINs have been sold. The agency alleges 48 million bogus credits came from Absolute Fuels of Texas, netting about $62 million. Another 32 million were purportedly sold by Clean Green Fuel LLC in Maryland for $9 million, and 60 million were marketed by Green Diesel of Texas, worth $84 million.

House Republicans expect the scam to hit at least 300 million fake credits. “Unfortunately, the production of and trade in fraudulent or invalid RINs has developed into a large and growing problem,” wrote House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton, Michigan Republican, and three other committee members in a May 24 letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “And EPA’s efforts to address the problem so far appear ineffective, and in some respects have harmed the renewable-fuels marketplace.”

Air Force Wind Power Project

The Air Force spent $14 million to switch three radar stations to wind power. Poor planning forced cancellation of one turbine and consideration of the same for the other two.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Presidential Election Campaign Fund

As of November the Presidential Election Campaign Fund contained $35.38 million. What could be dumber than forcing the American people to pay for the campaigns and conventions of the very politicians who created today’s mess?

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Biden's Weekend Trips Cost Taxpayers $1 Million A Year

Every Friday, Biden takes a helicopter designated as Marine Two from the vice president’s residence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and then hops on Air Force Two to fly back to his home in Delaware. At the end of the weekend, he returns on Air Force Two, usually a Boeing C-32.

During warm weather, Biden regularly returns to Andrews on the airplane on Saturdays to play golf at the Air Force base with President Obama. After the golf game, he flies back to Delaware and returns to Washington on the plane on Sunday evening — all at taxpayer expense.

The cost of flying Air Force Two is $22,000 an hour, so each half-hour trip to or from Delaware costs about $10,000. Each golf game costs taxpayers $20,000. At that rate, the annual cost to taxpayers of Biden’s weekend trips is well over $1 million.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Congressman's Debt May Be Bailed Out With Taxpayer Dollars

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), who is facing a lawsuit for failing to pay down a 2002 Bank of America loan that he used to buy a car wash in Missouri, could have a good chunk of the $1.5 million he owes paid off by taxpayers.

According to the Kansas City Star, the Small Business Administration (SBA) backed about three-quarters of Cleaver’s 2002 loan, which means that if the loan goes bad, the SBA could pay off $1.1 million of that debt.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Debt Up $1.59 Trillon - More in 15 Months Than First 97 Congresses Combined

At the close of business on March 4, 2011, the total federal debt was $14.182 trillion according to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt. At the close of business on May 31, 2012, it was $15.770 trillion. That is an increase of $1.588 trillion in just 15 months.

All of the debt accumulated by the federal government throughout the history of the country did not exceed $1.588 trillion until October 1984.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

$8 Billion To Train Iraqi Police

In the face of spiraling costs and Iraqi officials who say they never wanted it in the first place, the State Department has slashed — and may jettison entirely by the end of the year — a multibillion-dollar police training program that was to have been the centerpiece of a hugely expanded civilian mission here.

The training effort, which began in October and has already cost $500 million, was conceived of as the largest component of a mission billed as the most ambitious American aid effort since the Marshall Plan. The program has consistently been challenged by the special inspector general’s office, which in an audit late last year warned that it could become a “bottomless pit” for taxpayer dollars.

Since 2003, the American government has spent nearly $8 billion training the Iraqi police. Click here for complete NY Times article.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Navy Scraps Unused Ships

The U.S. Navy spent $300 million dollars of taxpayer money to build two ships and then spent another $10 million dollars to turn them to scrap metal without ever using them. Click here for full article.