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.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

$300,000 To Promote Caviar

Many Americans are finding it difficult to afford to put just the basics on their family’s dinner table. Yet, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spent $300,000 this year to promote caviar.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

$27 Million For Moroccan Pottery Classes

In 2009, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) began pursuing a four-year plan to improve the economic competitiveness of Morocco. A review by the agency’s Inspector General (IG) found the $27 million project “was not on track to achieve its goals".

A key part of the project involved training Moroccans to create and design pottery to sell in domestic and international markets. To accomplish this, an American pottery instructor was contracted to provide several weeks of training classes to local artists to improve their methods and teach them how to successfully make pottery that could be brought to market. Unfortunately, the translator hired for the sessions was not fluent in English and was unable to transmit large portions of the lectures to the participants.

Participants in the program were also frustrated by the choice of materials. The colored dyes and clay the instructor used during the class are unavailable for purchase in Morocco, making it impossible for the trainees to replicate the methods they had learned. Trainees also claimed the instructor would frequently forget to bring the right materials to class.

In one class, organizers reported 56 participants, but a trainee stated many of her classmates only signed in so they could receive the provided lunch, and estimated only around ten potters attended her class with any regularity.

Project managers agreed with the IG’s comments on the pottery training, admitting the training was “ineffective and poorly implemented.”

Moroccans have been making pottery since at least the fifth century B.C., with the earliest urban pottery made after 800 A.D. Perhaps, USAID could learn a thing or two about pottery making from Moroccans, who have been passing knowledge of the ancient craft from one generation to another for centuries.

Monday, October 29, 2012

$450,000 For Unused Airport

The Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission (OAC) voted this year to keep a rarely used Lake Murray State Park Airport open simply to land more federal funds. The airport averages just one flight per month, has no planes based there, and is situated mere miles from two more heavily used airports.

Yet, the airport lands an automatic $150,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) every year. Much of that money is eventually used elsewhere in the state, making the Lake Murray State Park Airport a layover to land government money.

In the last five years, Lake Murray State Park Airport has received $750,000 through the FAA program, of which the commission has spent only $5,546 on the airport itself – less than one percent! The rest of the funds were transferred to projects at other state airports or remain unspent. Just this year, OAC sent $150,000 to two other projects across the state, both of which have already benefited from millions of federal dollars. The commission is now sitting on $450,000.

Besides its ability to land federal funds, there is no other apparent reason to justify the airport’s existence. Closing it would not inconvenience travelers or pilots and would allow for better use of the property. If this layover boondoggle is happening in Oklahoma, is it happening elsewhere?

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Government Funding of PBS

The following is from an article by John Stossel...

The left screams because Romney says he'll cut PBS. A Huffington Post writer says that would be "a cultural and spiritual disaster for the nation."

Please. America is going broke! If we can't cut PBS, what can we cut?

Public broadcasting costs taxpayers "only" $420 million per year, but that's real money, and even if it weren't, the price is not the point. Government should not fund any broadcast networks.

As far as children's programming, Big Bird doesn't need the money! Sesame Street has assets of $355,858,257! Sesame Workshop makes $46M in licensing fees. The company is such a gold mine, it paid its recent president $929,629. Big Bird will do fine without taxpayer subsidies.

PBS once asked, "If not PBS, then who?" Cato's David Boaz points out that now the answer is: HBO, Bravo, Discovery, History, Science, C-SPAN, The Learning Channel ... and so on. I'm told that kids' programs like Noggin (Nick Jr.) are like pre-school on TV.

Yes, you have to pay for cable, but 63.7% of people below the poverty line have cable or satellite TV. Those who don't have cable still get education programs on free TV. NBC alone has The Wiggles, Noodle and Doodle, and LazyTown (get up & go, eat healthy).

Funding public broadcasting is welfare for rich people. PBS viewers are richer than average Americans. NPR even bragged about its listeners' wealth to potential advertisers: "152% more likely to have a home valued at half a million or more ... 194% more likely to travel to France." It's fine that they appeal to rich people. But you shouldn't have to fund it.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Recipes For Mars - $947,000

NASA has spent $947,000 on developing recipes for food that could be served on Mars. Close to a million dollars was awarded to researchers at Cornell University for the study, despite the fact that NASA has scrapped its manned flights and it could be decades before anything but the mechanical space probe Curiosity spends any time on the red planet.

Friday, October 26, 2012

More Examples of Government Waste

Here are a few more examples of government waste from Senator Coburn's Wastebook:
  • Instead of working to close the massive hole in our federal budget, our government spent $350,000 through the National Science Foundation to study how golfers are better when they imagine a larger golf hole.
  • While millions of Americans are struggling to put enough food on the table for their families, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) spent $300,000 to tell Americans to eat caviar, one of the world’s most expensive delicacies.
  • At the same time, USDA and the Department of Commerce are spending more than $1.3 million to help PepsiCo Inc., the world’s largest snack food maker, build a Greek yogurt factory in New York.
  • As members of Congress complain about defense cuts, Congress split a new line of Navy littoral (near shore) ships between two completely different designs, needlessly increasing costs by $740 million while undermining the Navy’s capabilities.
  • The biggest waste of taxpayer dollars of all, however, was Congress itself, which I listed as the #1 waste of taxpayer dollars this year. With 23 million Americans unemployed and millions of others struggling to live within a budget, the Senate didn’t even bother to pass a budget for the third straight year.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

$100,000/Year "Invitations Coordinator"

In the midst of the administration’s efforts to drastically reduce the nation’s military personnel and hike pay for government employees comes this gem: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is prepared to pay a salary of more than $100,000 for an employee to assist in planning bureau events.

According to a job listing on USAJobs.com, the federal government’s official employment classifieds site, the CFPB is seeking an “invitations coordinator” to “support management of CFPB’s participation in external events by developing and maintaining databases and event calendar and providing advice and guidance on consideration of invitations.”

The position will pay up to $102,900, and carries lavish benefits, including comprehensive health, vision, dental, life, and long-term care insurance programs, a federal retirement plan, and 10 paid holidays, 13 sick days, and up to 26 vacation days per year.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Mr. Johnson Goes to Washington

I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal about Senator Ron Johnson's frustrations in his first two years in office. Here are some excerpts:

Sounding like he's channeling the spirit of Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, he adds: "The government isn't here to solve our problems. We need government. It's necessary. But by and large, it's something to fear because as it grows, our freedoms recede. And as a result, way too many are trading their freedoms . . . for a false sense of economic security."

First up is a line graph that illustrates how federal spending has exploded to 24% of GDP from 2% a century ago. Next, a chart that plots spending and revenue over the past 50 years. Spending has averaged about 20.2% while revenue has trended around 18.1%—regardless of whether the top marginal tax rate was 90% or 28%. "The variation around that mean is tight. We've only gone above that mean [on revenue] four times," he notes.

Then come slides dispelling Democratic myths such as the ones about how Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan blew up the deficit. The tax cuts and war budgets account for just $1.2 trillion of the $5.3 trillion in deficits the Obama administration has run in four years. Republicans during the Bush administration might have been "spending like banshees," he says, but "they did get the deficit down to $162 billion. Far too high for me, but quaint in comparison to Obama's record."

As for the "draconian cuts" that Republicans now supposedly want to inflict, spending even under Rep. Paul Ryan's budget would be $1 trillion higher in 2022 than it is today.

And the idea that asking the wealthy to "pay their fair share," whatever that is, can solve the deficit? The president's so-called Buffett Rule to establish a minimum tax rate of 30% for millionaires would raise about $5 billion a year, while allowing the Bush rates to expire for the wealthy might bring in an additional $67 billion. ("I would like to do a Buffett Rule," Mr. Johnson deadpans. "Just for Buffett.")

The tax revenue would be a pittance, given that the deficit this year is $1.1 trillion and the national debt is $16 trillion—which, Mr. Johnson notes, will explode under ObamaCare. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the health law will cost $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years. The senator says that's a lowball estimate and that the gnomes at the CBO are underestimating the incentive for employers to drop their workers onto government-subsidized exchanges.

"Do I pay $15,000 and try to comply with 15,000 pages of law and regulations? Or do I pay the two- or three-thousand-dollar penalty" and make workers eligible for a generous subsidy?

The senator flips to another couple of slides that show how wildly unsuccessful the Obama administration's economic policies have been. Since the president took office, middle-class incomes have dropped by an average of $4,520 while health-care premiums have risen by about $3,000.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Why is there so much government waste?

I came across an article titled "Why is there so much government waste?". Here are a few excerpts:

The one thing that these ridiculous expenditures all have in common is that they are a direct result of people being able to spend other people’s money. In Congress’s case, we have 535 people with trillions of other people’s dollars to spend. That they’re content to fritter billions away on toys for special interests shouldn’t be shocking.

Countless Americans will express their indignation after learning of some of the details in the Coburn report. But after a couple of minutes the anger will subside and most folks will go about their business. There’s a good chance that come November they’ll pull the voting lever for a candidate who had a hand in the waste. There’s also a good chance that while they’re upset with a particular expenditure, they’re okay with the general mission of the program responsible for the waste.

Take the numerous examples in the Coburn report of federal money being wasted on subsidies to state and local government. Every year the Department of Transportation gives Oklahoma $150,000 for an airport that receives one flight a month. Beverly Hills, California received $180,000 from a HUD program that’s supposed to help spur economic development in lower-income locales. The Department of Commerce and the USDA teamed up to provide over $1 million to help a county in New York build a new yogurt factory for PepsiCo, Inc.

There are two problems with this mindset. First, so long as the federal government can spend money on anything it wants, politicians are going to spend money on anything they want. Second, contrary to what we’re taught in school, policymakers generally allocate money on the basis of political and parochial concerns — not on the basis of sound economics or even the so-called “public interest.”

So long as the federal government can give handouts to state and local politicians to spend on economic development, there is going to be waste. And as we have documented at Cato’s website, www.DownsizingGovernment.org, even when there isn’t de facto waste, federal programs are fraught with countless other shortcomings.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

National Debt

In the wake of the Treasury Department’s newly released summary of federal spending for 2012, it’s now possible to detail just how bad government spending has been.  Here’s the upshot:  For every $7 we had, we spent nearly $11 (or, to be more exact, $10.95).  That’s like a family that makes $70,000 a year — and is already knee-deep in debt — blowing nearly $110,000 a year.

In fiscal year 2012 (which ended on September 30), the federal government acquired $2.449 trillion in tax revenue and other receipts.  It spent $3.538 trillion — 44 percent more than it had available to spend.  The resulting deficit was $1.089 trillion.

In fiscal year 2011, the federal government acquired $2.303 trillion in tax revenues and other receipts.  It spent $3.603 trillion — 56 percent more than it had available to spend.  The resulting deficit was $1.3 trillion.

In fiscal year 2010, the federal government acquired $2.163 trillion in tax revenues and other receipts.  It spent $3.456 trillion — 60 percent more than it had available to spend.  The resulting deficit was $1.293 trillion.

Our national debt is now over $16 trillion and I suspect that when the cost of the new national health card law kicks in will grow even larger.  We simply cannot afford larger government.  Our country is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Waste In 1998

  • $221,000 for lowbush blueberry research at the University of Maine in the state of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME).
  • $150,000 added by the House for the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness.
  • $127,000 added by the Senate for global marketing support services in the state of Senate appropriator Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.). According to testimony, the goal of this research is to identify “potential foreign markets for Arkansas products….”
  • $32,000 added by the Senate for the Center for Rural Studies in the state of Senate appropriator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). A portion of this grant money is used for analytical reports to guide the development of Vermont retail shopping areas
  • $500,000 added by the House in the district of House appropriator Richard Durbin (D-IL) for the construction at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Illinois, of Chalres Corneau’s house, a neighbor and friend of Abraham Lincoln.
  • $10,912,000 added by the Senate for foreign language assistance.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Another Government "Green Energy" Failure

The troubled battery maker A123 Systems filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the Obama administration’s program to jump-start a domestic battery industry and spur development of electric vehicles.

A123, based in Waltham, Mass., was once considered one of the most promising grant recipients under the administration’s $2 billion stimulus program for electric car development. The Department of Energy awarded the company a $249 million grant to establish battery manufacturing operations in Michigan, although A123 had received only about $132 million of the grant before its bankruptcy.

A123’s bankruptcy is yet another failure for the government's disastrous strategy of gambling away billions of taxpayer dollars on a plan that simply does not work. The bankruptcy raises the prospect that the taxpayers will get little or no return on their investment in A123 and will lose millions of dollars.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Wastebook 2012

In his "Wastebook 2012" report, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma pointed to 100 items including tax breaks to highly profitable sports leagues like the NFL, NASA funding to develop meals for a Mars mission that may not take place for decades and thousands of dollars for scientists to build a "robosquirrel" to see if rattlesnakes would try to eat it.

Coburn, a longtime crusader against waste, said better prioritizing and oversight could have saved taxpayers $18.9 billion on the programs included in the report, which was based largely on existing government studies, inspector generals' findings and media reports.

The report includes a National Science Foundation grant for $325,000 for university researchers in California to develop a robotic squirrel to observe how rattlesnakes react, to study the interaction between predators and prey.

The report cites $27 million spent by the U.S. Agency for International Development to train Moroccans to make and sell pottery around the world. But the report, which cited a USAID inspector general report, says the program was riddled with problems, including having a translator at classes who was not fluent in English, and by using dyes and clay not available in that country.

The study is critical of the continued production of the copper penny, which now costs more than two cents to make. It complains about $516,000 spent on a video game that simulates the social experience of attending a prom, $31,000 for Smokey Bear balloons to make appearances at balloon festivals, $300,000 to promote domestically produced caviar, and $268 million spent on a loophole for paper manufacturers that allows them to claim a waste byproduct is an alternative energy source.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Waste In 1997

  • $50,000 for the development of a Welcome Center Facility City for Enumclaw, Washington. 
  • $4,000,000 for the Gambling Impact Study Commission. 
  • $330,000 for Stellar Sea Lion research of the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Consortium. 
  • $785,000 for bluefish/striped bass research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
  • $2,700,000 added by the Senate for the Animal Resource Wing at South Dakota State University. 
  • $4,000,000 added in conference for the Discovery Center of Science and Technology. 
  • $19,600,000 added by the House for the International Fund for Ireland, a program that tries to aid the peace process in Ireland by paying for golf videos, pony trekking centers, and sweater exports. 
  • $16,369,000 added by the Senate for public library construction. 
  • $9,469,000 added in conference for Migrant Education programs including: $7,441,000 for the High School Equivalency Program; and $2,028,000 for the College Assistance Migrant Program. 
  • $3,100,000 added by the Senate for the National Writing Project.
  • $8,200,000 for a new classroom building at the Rowley Secret Service Training Center in Beltsville, Maryland, which is the district of House Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations subcommittee member Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and the state of Senate appropriator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.).

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Waste In 2002

  • $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo, California.
  • $400,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute to improve the profitability of the state's sheep industry.
  • $273,000 for the Blue Springs (Missouri) Youth Orchestra Outreach Unit for educational training to combat Goth culture.
  • $1,000,000 appropriation for the Center for Public Service and the Common Good (a think tank) at the University of San Francisco.
  • $400,000 for manure management research at the National Swine Research Center.
  • $1,100,000 for the MountainMade Foundation in Thomas, West Virginia for business development and the education of artists and craftspeople.
  • In 2002 the U.S. government spent $4,000,000 to implement the forest and fish report of the Washington State.
  • $500,000 for exhibits on the Sullivan brothers at the Grout Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.
  • $61,000 for the State Historical Society to archive the history of Iowa workers.
  • $1,200,000 for the Ohio Arts Council to expand international programs.
  • $2,900,000 for the Mountaineer Doctor Television program at West Virginia University.
  • $2,000,000 for an educational mall at the Raleigh County Commission in Beckley.
  • $2,000,000 for West Virginia University to establish a Center on Obesity.
  • $260,000 for asparagus technology in the stae of Washington.
  • $1,200,000 for music education at the GRAMMY Foundation

Monday, October 15, 2012

Tax Deadbeats Raking In Federal Cash

It has long been clear that, when monitoring the activities of the federal government, one must often suspend natural expectations for sanity and integrity. For example, anyone who fails to pay taxes should be last in line to collect benefits paid for by taxpayers. But if the results of four reports are any indication, tax deadbeats are raking in federal cash.

A report, released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in July, 2012, found that Medicaid providers with tax debt had received an estimated $6.6 billion in Medicaid reimbursements in Florida, New York, and Texas alone. GAO investigated 40 Medicaid providers in those three states and found that they had received $235 million in Medicaid reimbursements, but owed approximately $26 million in taxes as of September, 2011. GAO extrapolated those numbers to arrive at a global estimate of $6.6 billion in those three states.  Worse, since it relies on the amount of unpaid taxes reported by individual providers or uncovered by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits, the report “likely understates the full extent of unpaid taxes owed by these or other businesses and individuals.”

 A similar GAO report released in May, 2012 found that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) had issued $1.44 billion in mortgage insurance for 6,327 borrowers with an average of $20,340 in tax debt. In that case, FHA issued insurance to thousands of borrowers who should have been ineligible, since many had not reached repayment agreements with the IRS. Despite the fact that borrowers with tax debt carry foreclosure risk “two to three times” greater than those without unpaid taxes, applicants for FHA mortgage insurance are not required to provide their federal debt status to FHA.

Finally, a February, 2012 IRS report found that about 98,000 federal employees owed the federal government $1.03 billion in 2010. That amount included $833,970 in unpaid taxes from 36 White House aides, an average of $23,156. While IRS employees – who presumably are more familiar with the tax code than most government workers – can be fired for tax delinquency, other federal employees cannot.

In all, it seems clear that tens of billions of dollars are doled out by the federal government to taxpayers who have shirked on their taxes each year. In a world where the fairness and shape of the federal tax system is fiercely debated, fixing such an obvious injustice must be a priority. After all, it might be the only issue in Washington on which everyone can agree.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Unsolicited Mail Should Not be Funded by Taxpayers

Members of Congress enjoy a benefit known as the franking privilege, which allows them to send mail to their constituents free of charge. This money comes from the near-bankrupt U.S. Postal Service, which in turn passes the cost on to taxpayers. Since its inception in the 18th century, the congressional franking privilege has spawned widespread criticism. Its detractors have long-argued that the privilege imposes a high cost on taxpayers, is susceptible to abuse, and undermines the democratic process by giving congressional incumbents an unfair advantage over their challengers.

Although lawmakers are expressly forbidden from using the franking privilege to mail non-informational materials to their constituents, they have found various means of circumventing this restriction. Craig Holman, a lobbyist at Public Citizen, told Bloomberg in a July 5, 2012 article, “Very, very rarely have I seen franked mail that’s just information to constituents about what Congress is doing.” Unsurprisingly, members of Congress typically make copious use of the frank during election years. For example, a March 30, 2012 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report points out that Congress spent $36.3 million on franked mail in FY 2010, prior to the 2010 midterm elections.

Congress’ ability to send unsolicited mail on the public’s dime is an anachronistic policy that lends itself to corruption and provides for incumbent politicians an unfair electoral advantage.  The policy also imposes a sizeable and unnecessary fiscal burden on taxpayers. Congress can take steps toward rooting out corruption, preserving the integrity of the democratic process, and saving public money by reforming the franking privilege.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

$380 Million For MEADS

Despite being rejected by three-out-of-four relevant congressional committees, funding for the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee on July 31, 2012 included in its version of the Department of Defense (DOD) spending bill $380 million for the widely-criticized missile defense system.  Previously, the House Armed Services Committee, the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and the Senate Committee on Armed Services (SCAS) have zeroed out funding for MEADS.  Since no authorization exists for MEADS, the funding added by the Senate subcommittee qualifies as an earmark under Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) longstanding criteria.

MEADS’ troubles have been well-documented by CAGW.  The program has been plagued with cost overruns of nearly $2 billion and is 10 years behind schedule.  A March 9, 2010 Washington Post report quoted an internal U.S. Army memo asserting that the program “will not meet U.S. requirements or address the current and emerging threat without extensive and costly modifications.”  

After witnessing the tortured path of the MEADS project, it’s not hard to understand why Congress faces such gridlock when determining solutions to avoid the automatic DOD cuts posed by sequestration.  Members can’t even agree to rid taxpayers of a program that has encountered such massive cost overruns, delays, and poor performance.  Eliminating MEADS would serve as a fine example of a judicious approach to trimming DOD waste; the continuation of funding by the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee represents a squandered opportunity.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Government Regulation

The report, “License to Work”, published by the Institute for Justice (IJ) on May 8, 2012, documents the expansion of many ludicrous licensing laws.  These regulations, most of which were implemented at the state level in the name of protecting consumers, often amount to incumbent businesses raising barriers to entry.  For example, it is easier to make money as an electrician when potential competitors face higher hurdles to doing business in a particular area.

IJ studied 102 occupational licenses and found that they require, on average, “$209 in fees, one exam, and about nine months of education and training.”  Those amounts might not sound like much, especially in lucrative professions like engineering or law, but the IJ study reveals that licensing requirements rarely correspond with the apparent danger or required skill of an occupation.  Often, low-income occupations that might ordinarily represent a path out of poverty for workers with limited skills are among the most onerously regulated occupations.  For example, an average cosmetologist spends 372 days in training, while the average Emergency Medical Technician can become licensed in just 33 days.  For preschool teachers, all but five states require at least five years of education and training, and 31 states require at least two exams.

The second report, authored by the staff of House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), “Job Creators Still Buried by Red Tape,” reveals a mountain of paperwork at the federal level that is expanding at an accelerating rate.  Published on July 19, 2012, the Issa report pointed out that the number of final rules issued by federal agencies climbed by 6.5 percent from 2010 to 2011 alone, exactly as the economy was struggling to recover from a brutal 2009.

The Issa report also noted that the “published regulatory burden,” as measured by the American Action Forum (AAF), may top $105 billion in 2012 alone, and the amount of time spent on paperwork as a result of those regulations has already risen by 114 million hours.  There were 123.6 million paperwork hours added by federal regulations in all of 2011.  For context, the Burj Khalifa, the tallest manmade structure in the world, took 22 million hours to build.  To make matters worse, employers are still waiting to absorb the full impact of the Dodd-Frank Act, for which “only about 36 percent of the roughly 400 rulemakings [it] requires have been implemented,” and Obamacare, which does not take full effect until 2014.  

In short, the regulatory burden faced by businesses and workers is bizarre, heavy, and mounting.  Reform should be at the forefront of any congressional jobs agenda, for although regulation and licensing may not be what caused the 2009 recession, they are unquestionably dragging down the recovery.  Further, as the examples above make clear, regulatory reform, rather than being “a transfer of power from the trodden to the treading,” as The Guardian’s George Monbiot called it in 2010, is essential to a just and equitable economy.  For those in favor of increased regulation are often not the trodden, but the treading themselves.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

The Waste Continues

In 1999 the U.S. government spent:
  • $1,000,000 for the "eradication of Brown Tree Snakes" (Hawaii)
  • $1,000,000 to "develop and train Alaska natives for employment in the petroleum industry"
  • $500,000 for water taxis in Savannah (Georgia)
  • $200,000 for a transit center for the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team
  • $1,200,000 million to subsidize a park on the Galapagos Islands

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

$500,000 For Manure Handling & Disposal

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for a Mississippi research project on "manure handling and disposal".

Monday, October 8, 2012

$340 Million For PBS

Congress appropriated $340,000,000 in federal tax dollars to PBS (Public Broadcasting Services).

Sunday, October 7, 2012

$5 Million Sea Lion Recovery Plan

Uncle Sam gave $5,000,000 to the University of Alaska, North Pacific University, and the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation to fund the "stellar sea lion recovery plan."

Saturday, October 6, 2012

$800,000 Coal Library

In 1998 more than $800,000 was approved for a coal library in Pennsylvania. Defenders stated that it would provide historical insight into a very important part of Pennsylvania and history.

Friday, October 5, 2012

$30 Million Tax Refund Notice

The IRS sent out a notice to every person advising them that they would be receiving a tax refund in 2001 - the estimated cost $30,000,000.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Jobs and the Welfare State

Please read John Stossel's article on Jobs and the Welfare State. He sends an intern, a college student, to various government agencies in NYC to look for a job.

Based on her experience, she concludes:

  • The government would rather sign me up for welfare than help me get a job.
  • The government makes it easier to sign up for welfare than to find work.
  • The NYC government creates a tax-payer funded bureaucracy to send people to the same websites people could find on their own.
  • The private market for jobs works better.

These "jobs" programs do not work. Yet, the government funds them and wants to expand them. Politicians want to continue institutionalizing welfare offices, and incentivizing people to take ‘free stuff' instead of to take initiative. This is a prime example of why we should not be spending billions of dollars on these programs.

Miscellaneous Government Expenditures

$469,000 for the National Wildlife Turkey Federation in South Carolina

$100,000 for the Punxsatawny Weather Discovery Center Museum

$350,000 for the Inner Harmony Foundation and Wellness Center in Scranton, PA

$1,430,000 for various Halls of Fame, including $250,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, TN and $70,000 for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, WI

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

$25,000 Grant To Study Bad Tennis Court Behavior

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided a $25,000 grant in 1977 to study why people cheat, lie and act rudely on local Virginia tennis courts.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

$1.2 Million Historical Monument Sewer

The Environmental Protection Agency spent $1.2 million in 1980 to preserve a Trenton, NJ sewer as a historical monument.

Monday, October 1, 2012

A Good Surfing Beach

The Department of Commerce gave the City and County of Honolulu $28,600 in 1981 to study how they could spend another $250,000 for a good surfing beach.