The Senator’s annual summary of wasteful spending is entitled Wastebook followed by the year of its publication. He has just releases “Wastebook 2015” and trust me, as you will see below, the wasteful spending on idiocy continues unabated under the Obama administration.
Before we go into the latest Wastebook results, let’s do a quick review of the major wasteful spending examples that we have previously exposed in this blog:
- Medicare and Medicaid likely lose over $100 billion a year to waste, fraud, and inefficiencies.
- Social Security easily loses over $100 billion a year to waste and fraud.
- The IRS readily admits that it fails to collect almost $400 billion a year in taxes owed.
- Obama’s debt reduction commission recommended that over $100 billion a year could be removed from the Pentagon’s budget without compromising national security; I contend that this is a substantially low ball figure.
- The Navy recently spent almost $300 million to build two ships to near completion, decided that they were not needed, and then spent another $10 million to junk them.
- The State Department spent $60 million to build a consulate in Afghanistan and then realized that it could not be defended against a terrorist attack and abandoned it without ever using it.
- The National Science Foundation annually wastes billions of dollars on such inane projects as a video game that simulates prom week, determining when dogs became man’s best friend, and other such nonsense.
1) According to Coburn’s research, the National Institute of Health’s Center for Alternative and Complimentary Medicine spent $387,000 to study the effects of Swedish massages on rabbits. This is the same government organization that says it does not have a big enough budget for Ebola vaccines but apparently has enough for rabbit massages.
2) The Department of Interior spent $10,000 to monitor the growth rate of saltmarsh grass, i.e., the government is paying people to watch grass grow.
3) The National Science Foundation has granted more than $200,000 to a research project that is trying to determine how and why Wikipedia is sexist.
4) At a cost of $371,026 the National Institute of Health funded a study to see if mothers love dogs as much as they love kids.
5) The Federal government granted $804,254 for the development of a smartphone game called “Kiddio: Food Fight.” The game is intended to teach parents how to convince their children to try and eat new healthier food choices. I guess telling your kids you cannot leave the table until you eat your vegetables is no longer a valid way of child rearing like it was for my mother.
6) The National Endowment for the Humanities has provided $47,000 for undergraduate classes that teach students about laughing and humor.
7) The National Science Foundation spent $856,000 to teach mountain lions how to walk on treadmills as part of a research project whose aim was to better understand mountain lions’ instincts.
8) A Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that the Federal government has recently paid more $700,000,000 to over 57,000 government employees who have not shown up to work for a variety of reasons. In some cases, workers accused of serious misconduct are reportedly getting paid to stay home and do nothing.
The Department of Defense (DOD) has the highest number of paid leaves on record. During the three years that ended in September 2013, DOD put 8,600 employees on leave for one to three months, close to 900 for three months to a full year and 123 employees for more than a year.
9) The country that put men on the moon, the United States, no longer has the capability of putting a man into orbit, relying on the Russians to put an American in orbit at the outrageous cost of $70 million per astronaut per trip. Once up in space at the International Space Station, more money is wasted on such idiotic projects as the design and creation of better golf clubs.
10) The Coast Guard has reduced its focus and resources on drug and migrant interdictions and but now offers free patrols for private yacht parties.
11) The IRS has mistakenly given over $4 billion to identity thieves across the country since it was too incompetent to identify thousands and thousands of bogus tax returns.
12) The Federal government spent $331,000 to see if people would stab voodoo dolls when angry and hungry at the same time.
13) That same government spent $171,000 to study the gambling habits of monkeys, finding out that monkeys share “our unfounded belief in winning and losing streaks,” a completely useless finding for every single American.
14) Coburn said that the Defense Department has budgeted $80 million over four years to build a Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, and is spending some of that taxpayer money collaborating with Hollywood costume designers along the way. No use having a Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit if it does not look cool.
As if $80 million was not enough to waste, Coburn’s research cited one industry source that estimates that $1 billion would eventually be needed to build just a single prototype.
15) The report estimated the annual level of waste related to food stamp fraud at about $3 billion.
16) In 2012, the State Department funded a gathering of world musicians from around the world in Florida, where they participated in a flash mob.
Unbelievable. Hundreds of billions of dollars wasted every year for nothing in return. Millions of Americans are homeless and hungry but the government spends money on rabbit massages.
Thousands and thousands of veterans are not getting the medical care they need but the government spends money the gambling habits of monkeys.
Tens of millions of Americans cannot afford health insurance or health care but the government spends money on voodoo doll research.
Millions of Americans are fighting destructive addictions to tobacco, alcohol, and drugs but the government spends money on treadmill walking lions.
Pathetic leadership from the American political class. Especially from Obama who apparently has broken another campaign promise when he promised to go through the Federal government “line-by-line” to weed out waste.
So the next time a politician or a big government loving friend says that taxes need to be raised to fund essential government work, ask him how the massaged rabbits are making out. Until the Federal government and those that operate it stop the insanity of these types of spending, no American should pay one cent more in any kind of taxes.
Step 1 From “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” was custom made for this tragedy. Step 1 would reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for fives years. This approach would bring the Federal government spending in line with its tax revenue stream, it would result in focusing the government on just essential projects since it would not have the budget to do these kinds of frivolous projects, and it would help out those in our society that really need the help vs. the well connected that really need nothing, including our tax dollars.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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