November, 2014, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Terrorist Panties, Tic Tac Regulations, and More

It is the start of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity that has been dumped on us by the worst set of politicians to ever hold office in the history of this country. From wasteful spending to bad priorities to general ineffectiveness, the insanity rolling out of Washington and other political centers and government around the country seems to be accelerating as the idiocy of our political times increases.

Last month we set a record by needing almost two full weeks of posts to get all of the insanity documented and discussed. Given what I see today, we will be hard pressed not to get close to or exceed that record of insanity this month. It keeps getting worse and worse and the effectiveness of the political class gets less and less.

1) Before we start with this first piece of wasteful spending insanity, think back, if you are old enough to the late 1970s. At that time, the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of this country and its Constitutional freedoms and liberties, was in need of extensive and costly repair. 

Despite its place of honor in our history and collective freedom, not a single taxpayer dollar was used to restore it and refurbish it. The entire renovation cost was covered with private donations from citizens and businesses.

Now, consider the reality that Federal taxpayer dollars have been allocated to fund a Gammy awards museum in Cleveland, Mississippi. Forty years ago the Federal government would not fund the fixing of the Statue of Liberty but today the political class and Federal government will use taxpayer money to build a music museum in that thriving metro area of Cleveland, Mississippi.

According to research done for the 2015 publication of Senator Tom Coburn’s Wastebook 2015, the Federal government gave Delta State University $1.25 million, via the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration, to help build an access road and upgrade infrastructure in preparation for the 2015 opening of the $18-million Grammy Museum Mississippi.

If the state of Mississippi and the town of Cleveland wanted to build a Grammy Museum to hype tourism, than the state of Mississippi and the town of Cleveland should be for everything connected to the museum, the rest of America should not have to pay for such nonsense. 

As proposed in Step 44 of “Love my Country, Loathe My Government,” a step that says no Federal money should be spent on any project unless it materially effects and benefit’s the residents of at least five states, this money never, ever should have been appropriated for this project. It is the thousands and thousands of dumb, localized projects that end up wasting tens of billions of dollars every year, calumniating and contributing to our $18 TRILLION national debt.

If we did not have to pay to fix the Statue of Liberty we should not have to pay for a silly museum in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi. How many homeless and hungry Americans could have been given shelter and food instead of building roads for a local museum? How many ailing veterans could have gotten better medical care for that $l.25 million Federal tax dollars? 

2) According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, six out of ten people polled said they do not trust the government to do what's right. Additionally, a majority feel that government’s ability to deal with and resolve big problems has been on the decline for the past few years.

While this is probably bad news for Democrats heading into next week’s midterm elections since they have controlled most of the Federal government over the past eight years or so, does anyone really think that Republicans can reduce that level of pessimism? They are all members of the same political class, a class of people that are always more interested in their own careers and self enrichment than resolving the problems of the country.

The insanity here is that a majority of Americans, and I would bet that it is a growing majority of Americans, have lost faith in the Federal government to do anything right. And the losing of faith makes turning the country around that much more difficult.

3) After the 9-11 attacks, the Washington political class thought it would be a great idea to create a new, super large Federal bureaucracy called the Department of Homeland Security. These folks were going to protect us in the future from new terrorist attacks within this country.

With the rise of the super dangerous terrorists groups like ISIS, one would hope that this was a good idea. That the people employed by the Department of Homeland Security would be on the borders, focusing on threats in far away lands, and on the job of making sure that terrorists do not wreck havoc like they did on 9-11. One would hope that, but as always, with the political class and the federal government, one would again be wrong. 

But first, a little background. The Kansas City Royals just missed winning the baseball World Series in the past week. To commemorate their march through their season, the playoffs and into the World Series, Peregrine Honig, owner of Honig’s Birdies Panties shop in Crossroads, Kansas, said she designed the Lucky Royals women’s panties that were set to go on sale shortly after the world series ended. The panties read, “Take the Crown,” with “KC” across the bottom. She had a few dozen made to sell in her shop.

However, apparently her designs on the panties violated Federal copyright laws. By connecting the “K” and the “C,” she infringed on major league baseball’s copyright. How did she find out she had violated copyright law? Two, not one, Department of Homeland Security agents showed up in her store, flashed their badges, told her that her panties violated Federal copyright laws, and confiscated the few dozen offending panties.

Really? ISIS is marching across the Middle East beheading innocent people, threatening to invade America, wiping religious minorities in their path, and the Department of Homeland Security is physically sending agents into a small lingerie store to confiscate panties? Really?

The Commerce Department couldn’t send a registered letter telling Ms. Honig to cease and desist? How did the Department of Homeland Security even get involved in such a trivial matter? Insane. Are illegal panties that much of a threat to the homeland? You cannot make this nonsense up.

4) According to the December, 2014 issue of Reason magazine, in 1997 the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set out to regulate what was said on the labels of Tic Tacs, Certs, and other breath fresheners. A whopping seventeen years later, those draft regulations are finally done, resulting in a 145 page document to regulate Tic Tac et al labels. Seventeen years and they have juts gotten to the DRAFT of the regulations.

During the process, the FDA consulted with the Centers for Disease Control, the Federal trade Commission, the Department of Agriculture, and other Federal agencies. All this for a final effort that probably will be ignored by every American but at a cost of probably tens of millions of dollars. 

Your tax dollars at work (over seventeen years): determining what to put on a label of a breath mint. How many of billions of breath mints does one thing were consumed over that time frame without any kind of catastrophic effects, despite not having a federal approved label? Insanity.

That will do it for today. But buckle up, we are in for a long ride of insanity in the days, and possibly weeks to come.

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

Day 1: Seven Days of Logic and Sanity That Prove Raising Taxes On Any American Is Just Plain Stupid

As many of you know, the nation is about to go over the so-called fiscal cliff on January 1, 2013. This cliff will involve cutbacks in government spending (a good thing) and the raising of taxes on just about every American (a bad thing). Why is it a bad thing? Because, as we have proven so many times in this blog, no American, rich or poor, should have to pay another penny in taxes, given how wasteful and inefficient the Federal government is.

Unfortunately, our President continues his class warfare rhetoric and divisiveness by insisting that higher earning Americans pay more in taxes. These Americans already account for the great bulk of taxes paid to run an inefficient Federal government. It has been our position that it is the political class, starting with the President, that needs to actually start doing their jobs and fixing the spending monstrosity that is the Federal government.

Thus, as a public service to a President that would rather divide the country than make sure the executive branch of the Federal government stopped wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year, for the next week or so we will be rerunning, and updating, some of the blog posts that prove conclusively that we have an overwhelming government spending problem, not an inadequate taxation problem. We will also use other information from nonpartisan sources that show how bad and irrational government spending has morphed into.

Before we educate the President, let’s review some of the major wasteful spending activities our Federal government indulges in, at the expense of our wealth every day:

1. Medicare misspends and loses between $70 and $90 billion a year through inefficiencies, waste, and criminal fraud.
2. Medicaid misspends and loses between $40 and $60 billion a year through inefficiencies, waste, and criminal fraud.
3. Social Security misspends and loses over $100 billion a year through inefficiencies, waste, and criminal fraud.
4. Just one Federal government unemployment program misspends and loses about $17 billion through inefficiencies, waste, and criminal fraud.
5. The Federal government food stamp program loses billions of dollars a year through inefficiencies, waste, and criminal fraud.
6. The IRS has readily admitted that it cannot collect over $380 billion a year in taxes owed under the current tax code.,

Just these six government programs lose about $630 billion a year, every year. Over a ten year planning span, this comes out to a whopping $6.3 TRILLION.

These six examples are what we call systemic waste in that it occurs every year. There is also a continuing train of what we call random, one time wastes of taxpayer wealth as shown by the following examples:

• The Navy relatively recently decided to spend $10 million to turn two of its ships into scrap iron. No unusual, unless you find out that the two ships, which had been made at the cost of $300 million, were almost build out to completion and then scrapped after never being used by the Navy.
• The State Department abandoned a never used $80 million consulate building, that was built in northern Afghanistan, AFTER it determined that it could not be defended from a terrorist attack. The sad thing about this loss/waste of $80 million is that if the State Department had only followed its own guidelines for construction and security, no money would have ever been spent and wasted.
• The Transportation Security Administration spent almost $200 million on airport security equipment that it will never use. The equipment is now sitting in a TSA warehouse, still in its original packaging.
• The National Science Foundation spent more than half a million dollars when it paid for someone to develop a computer simulation of “Prom Week.”

These random acts of waste occur once but their brethren occur thousands and thousands of times every year.

These are just a few of the reasons why no American should pay a penny more in taxes to the Federal government. There is so much wasteful spending going on today that until Obama, and the rest of the political class stop the waste, no one should pay a penny more.

This sets the stage for the next week or so of posts. We will review how really bad, disgraceful, and wasteful government spending is in this country today. Our final post in this series will show our politicians how relatively easy it is to 1) not raise taxes, 2) to reduce our national debt by $9 TRILLION over the next decade or so, and 3) have minimal impact on most average Americans.

Stupid is as stupid does and raising taxes without reducing wasteful and criminal government spending is just that: stupid.

******************************



Thursday, May 24, 2012

Wasteful Government Spending Week - A Historical Perspective

This week we have diligently been going through all types of government waste from all corners of the Federal bureaucracy. We discussed the $80 million wasted on an unused State Department consulate in Afghanistan, $184 million of wasted airport security equipment purchases that are likely to never be used, over $3 billion wasted on failed green energy companies, etc.

Today, we will take a more historical perspective. The following Federal government spending instances go back over the past three decades or so. They come to us today courtesy of the website, www.boycottliberalism.com. I do not know if all of this information is correct but since I recognize many of these unnecessary expenses from other research I have done, it would not surprise me that these are actual, and unneeded, previous random wasteful spending examples.

After the examples from http://www.boycottliberalism.com/ listed below I have included more examples of unneeded spending by the political class at our website, http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. You can actually visit that website and vote on whether the forty or so expenditures were worthwhile use of taxpayer dollars. So far, those that have voted have overwhelmingly rejected the notion that these are worthy of taxpayer wealth.

The very sad part about today's waste is that it comes out to over $1.2 TRILLION worth of misused taxpayer wealth. Over a roughly thirty year period, this waste averages out to about $60 billion a year, or about $348 a year for every current American household. Imagine how much more robust our economy would be if every household had an extra $348 or so each year to spend, rather than have it wasted on the idiotic expenditures listed below.

The cumulative running total of government waste as identified by the website:


$1,230,956,867,592.00:

The National Institutes of Health spent more than $400,000 in taxpayer money by 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.

The U.S. government spent $2.6 million to make sure prostitutes in China consume less alcohol while working. As part of the five-year study that the National Institutes of Health bankrolled, researchers are visiting more than 100 houses of prostitution to monitor their employees, designated as FSWs, or female sex workers.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a study on the use of ecstasy, LSD and other “party drugs” in Porto Alegre, Brazil. To do this, U.S. taxpayers will invest $117,876 for the three-year study, conducted by researchers from the University of Delaware, who will work in collaboration with researchers from Brazil's Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

Federal employees wasted at least $146 million over a one-year period in business- or first-class airline tickets bought in violation of travel policies, Congressional investigators say.

It looks like Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is going to get his wish – $2 million in taxpayer funding for a library commemorating his 37 years in the House of Representatives. The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public service will serve as a repository for his "papers," and the Congressman will have his own office in the Harlem complex.

The earned income tax credit (EITC) provides $31 billion in refundable tax credits to 19 million low-income families. The IRS estimates that $8.5 billion to $9.9 billion of this amount—nearly one-third—is wasted in overpayments.

A recent audit revealed that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million.

Since World War II, the U.S. has spent $1.2 trillion on foreign aid to 70 countries – and all are worse off than they were in 1980, according to the U.N.

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

For the Health Care Financing Administration for Medicaid payments to psychiatrists for unscheduled, coincidental meetings with patients who were attending basketball games, sitting on stoops, etc. -- the cost of which was between $40 and $80 million from 1981 to 1984.

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

The Office of Education for spending $219,592 in 1978 to develop a curriculum to teach college students how to watch television.

The Environmental Protection Agency for spending an extra $1 million to $1.2 million in 1980 to preserve a Trenton, NJ sewer as a historical monument.

In 2005 - $469,000 for the National Wildlife Turkey Federation in South Carolina.

In 2005 - $100,000 for the Punxsatawny Weather Discovery Center Museum.

In 2005 - $350,000 for the Inner Harmony Foundation and Wellness Center in Scranton, Penn.

In 2005 - $1,430,000 for various Halls of Fame, including $250,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn., and $70,000 for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wis.

Medicare, the U.S. health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled, erroneously paid out $19.9 billion during fiscal 2004, up from $19.6 billion a year earlier, because of mistakes, waste and fraud, a government report said. In most cases, hospitals and doctors billed for medically unnecessary services or didn't provide proper documentation to support the fees for services.

The GAO estimated that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department spent an estimated $100 million for airline tickets that were not used over a six-year period and failed to seek refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable.

While Andrew Cuomo was HUD Secretary under Bill Clinton, the agency set up a "Creative Wellness" program that spent $1,100,000 million taxpayer dollars on “gem” bags and taught public tenants to burn incense.

The study, titled "Status/Dominance and Motivational Effects on Nonverbal Sensitivity and Smiling," attempts to find out if it's really true that women smile more than men, and if people of higher status smile less. Judith Hall, a highly respected researcher at Northeastern University in Boston, is conducting the smile study — and it is not her first. Since 1993, she has been awarded more than $500,000.

A National Science Foundation study looking at whether White House reporters have become more adversarial sounds a bit strange to reporters and critics. Even more surprising: the study cost taxpayers $180,000.

In 2001 more than $600,000 in tax money was spent on researching the sex lives of South African ground squirrels.

The head of 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.

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.

In 2001 the U.S.. Government 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."

In the year 2001, Congress appropriated $340,000,000 in federal tax dollars to PBS (Public Broadcasting Services).

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

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1,500,000 million to promote silk production in Laos.

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1 ,000,000 for the "eradication of Brown Tree Snakes" (Hawaii).

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1,000,000 to "develop and train Alaska natives for employment in the petroleum industry."

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for water taxis in Savannah (Georgia).

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $200,000 for a transit center for the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team.

In 1999 $1,200,000 million to subsidize a park on the Galapagos Islands.

In 2000 the U.S. government spent $100,000 to study the causes of sediment buildup at a Santa Cruz, New Mexico dam.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo, California.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $400,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute to improve the profitability of the state's sheep industry.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $273,000 for the Blue Springs (Missouri) Youth Orchestra Outreach Unit for educational training to combat Goth culture.

In 2003 the U.S. government spent $1,000,000 appropriation for the Center for Public Service and the Common Good (a think tank) at the University of San Francisco.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $400,000 for manure management research at the National Swine Research Center.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,100,000 for the Mountain Made 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.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for exhibits on the Sullivan brothers at the Grout Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $61,000 for the State Historical Society to archive the history of Iowa workers.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,200,000 for the Ohio Arts Council to expand international programs.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,900,000 for the Mountaineer Doctor Television program at West Virginia University.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,000,000 for an educational mall at the Raleigh County Commission in Beckley.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,000,000 for West Virginia University to establish a Center on Obesity.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $260,000 for asparagus technology in the state of Washington.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,200,000 for music education at the GRAMMY Foundation.

In 2000 the U.S. government spent $50,000 for the development of a Welcome Center Facility City for Enumclaw, Washington.

In 1997 - $4,000,000 for the Gambling Impact Study Commission.

In 1997 - $330,000 for Stellar Sea Lion research of the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Consortium.

In 1997 - $785,000 for bluefish/striped bass research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In 1997 - $2,700,000 added by the Senate for the Animal Resource Wing at South Dakota State University.

In 1997 - $4,000,000 added in conference for the Discovery Center of Science and Technology.

In 1997 - $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.

In 1997 - $16,369,000 added by the Senate for public library construction.

In 1997 - $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.

In 1997 - $3,100,000 added by the Senate for the National Writing Project.

In 1997 - $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.).

In 1998 - $220,000 added by the Senate for lowbush blueberry research in Maine.

In 1994 - $221,000 for lowbush blueberry research at the University of Maine in the state of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME).

In 1998 - $150,000 added by the House for the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness.

In 1998 - $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….”

In 1998 - $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.

In 1998 - $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 Charles Corneau’s house, a neighbor and friend of Abraham Lincoln.

In 1998 - $10,912,000 added by the Senate for foreign language assistance.

In 1994 - $200,000 for locoweed research at New Mexico State University in the state of House appropriator Joe Skeen (R-NM). Since 1992, $716,000 has been appropriated, and there is no expected completion date for this research.

In 1994 - $1,000,000 added in the Senate for the Multispecies Aquaculture Center in the state of Senate appropriator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).

In 1994 - $19,600,000 added in the House for the International Fund for Ireland. The conference report “restores language stricken by the Senate and appropriates up to $19,600,000 for the International Fund for Ireland.” In the past, this program has used American taxpayer dollars for a golf video and pony trekking centers.

In 1993 - $19,704,000 for the International Fund for Ireland requested, according to committee sources, by House Speaker Thomas Foley (D-WA).

In 1993 - $9,170,000 added in conference for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission in the district of House appropriator John Murtha (D-PA).

In 1992 - $2,000,000 added in conference by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) for a New York Bight Center for undersea research.

$1.2 TRILLION spent with very little societal benefit to show for it except the ability of incumbent politicians to use taxpayer money to fund their continual reelection.

What a shameful waste. A few observations and suggestions come to mind:

• When the Statue of Liberty was badly in need of refurbishment back in the 1970s, no taxpayer money was used to fix it up. It was all financed by citizen and corporate donations. Going forward, the political class should not be able to allocate any money for local projects like the dozens listed above unless that project was more important than the Statue Of Liberty, one of the shining examples of liberty of our country. Thus, if this rule was in place, no Federal taxpayer money would ever be wasted on bike trails, repurposed cabooses, etc. since none of those projects are more worthy of government financing than the Statue of Liberty.
• Step 44 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" should also be deployed to eliminate the trillion dollars of wasteful spending highlighted above. Step 44 would not allow any Federal money to be used on any project unless that project had a substantial impact on a significant number of citizens from at least five states. For example, Federal money would continue to be used to support Amtrak since that affects many states and many states' citizens across the country, However, under Step 44's criteria, no Federal dollars would ever be used again to build a local river trail, build a local farmers' market, etc., since these types of projects should all be handled with instate tax dollars.
• And our favorite step from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" also comes into play here. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, "one and done," Many of the above examples of wasteful spending are done by incumbent politicians to show the back home voters how they can get Federal dollars flowing back to their states and Congressional districts, no matter how stupid the projects being funded are. If incumbents knew that they had no chance of being reelected due to term limits, the need to funnel money back home to support their reelection chances goes away.

Most Americans recognize the insanity of wasting their tax dollars on these types of programs and projects. It makes you wonder why the political class does not see it the same way.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Wasteful Government Spending Week - A Historical Perspective

This week we have diligently been going through all types of government waste from all corners of the Federal bureaucracy. We discussed the $80 million wasted on an unused State Department consulate in Afghanistan, $184 million of wasted airport security equipment purchases that are likely to never be used, over $3 billion wasted on failed green energy companies, etc.

Today, we will take a more historical perspective. The following Federal government spending instances go back over the past three decades or so. They come to us today courtesy of the website, www.boycottliberalism.com. I do not know if all of this information is correct but since I recognize many of these unnecessary expenses from other research I have done, it would not surprise me that these are actual, and unneeded, previous random wasteful spending examples.

After the examples from http://www.boycottliberalism.com/ listed below I have included more examples of unneeded spending by the political class at our website, http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. You can actually visit that website and vote on whether the forty or so expenditures were worthwhile use of taxpayer dollars. So far, those that have voted have overwhelmingly rejected the notion that these are worthy of taxpayer wealth.

The very sad part about today's waste is that it comes out to over $1.2 TRILLION worth of misused taxpayer wealth. Over a roughly thirty year period, this waste averages out to about $60 billion a year, or about $348 a year for every current American household. Imagine how much more robust our economy would be if every household had an extra $348 or so each year to spend, rather than have it wasted on the idiotic expenditures listed below.

The cumulative running total of government waste as identified by the website:


$1,230,956,867,592.00:

The National Institutes of Health spent more than $400,000 in taxpayer money by 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.

The U.S. government spent $2.6 million to make sure prostitutes in China consume less alcohol while working. As part of the five-year study that the National Institutes of Health bankrolled, researchers are visiting more than 100 houses of prostitution to monitor their employees, designated as FSWs, or female sex workers.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a study on the use of ecstasy, LSD and other “party drugs” in Porto Alegre, Brazil. To do this, U.S. taxpayers will invest $117,876 for the three-year study, conducted by researchers from the University of Delaware, who will work in collaboration with researchers from Brazil's Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

Federal employees wasted at least $146 million over a one-year period in business- or first-class airline tickets bought in violation of travel policies, Congressional investigators say.

It looks like Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is going to get his wish – $2 million in taxpayer funding for a library commemorating his 37 years in the House of Representatives. The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public service will serve as a repository for his "papers," and the Congressman will have his own office in the Harlem complex.

The earned income tax credit (EITC) provides $31 billion in refundable tax credits to 19 million low-income families. The IRS estimates that $8.5 billion to $9.9 billion of this amount—nearly one-third—is wasted in overpayments.

A recent audit revealed that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million.

Since World War II, the U.S. has spent $1.2 trillion on foreign aid to 70 countries – and all are worse off than they were in 1980, according to the U.N.

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

For the Health Care Financing Administration for Medicaid payments to psychiatrists for unscheduled, coincidental meetings with patients who were attending basketball games, sitting on stoops, etc. -- the cost of which was between $40 and $80 million from 1981 to 1984.

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

The Office of Education for spending $219,592 in 1978 to develop a curriculum to teach college students how to watch television.

The Environmental Protection Agency for spending an extra $1 million to $1.2 million in 1980 to preserve a Trenton, NJ sewer as a historical monument.

In 2005 - $469,000 for the National Wildlife Turkey Federation in South Carolina.

In 2005 - $100,000 for the Punxsatawny Weather Discovery Center Museum.

In 2005 - $350,000 for the Inner Harmony Foundation and Wellness Center in Scranton, Penn.

In 2005 - $1,430,000 for various Halls of Fame, including $250,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn., and $70,000 for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wis.

Medicare, the U.S. health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled, erroneously paid out $19.9 billion during fiscal 2004, up from $19.6 billion a year earlier, because of mistakes, waste and fraud, a government report said. In most cases, hospitals and doctors billed for medically unnecessary services or didn't provide proper documentation to support the fees for services.

The GAO estimated that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department spent an estimated $100 million for airline tickets that were not used over a six-year period and failed to seek refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable.

While Andrew Cuomo was HUD Secretary under Bill Clinton, the agency set up a "Creative Wellness" program that spent $1,100,000 million taxpayer dollars on “gem” bags and taught public tenants to burn incense.

The study, titled "Status/Dominance and Motivational Effects on Nonverbal Sensitivity and Smiling," attempts to find out if it's really true that women smile more than men, and if people of higher status smile less. Judith Hall, a highly respected researcher at Northeastern University in Boston, is conducting the smile study — and it is not her first. Since 1993, she has been awarded more than $500,000.

A National Science Foundation study looking at whether White House reporters have become more adversarial sounds a bit strange to reporters and critics. Even more surprising: the study cost taxpayers $180,000.

In 2001 more than $600,000 in tax money was spent on researching the sex lives of South African ground squirrels.

The head of 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.

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.

In 2001 the U.S.. Government 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."

In the year 2001, Congress appropriated $340,000,000 in federal tax dollars to PBS (Public Broadcasting Services).

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

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1,500,000 million to promote silk production in Laos.

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1 ,000,000 for the "eradication of Brown Tree Snakes" (Hawaii).

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1,000,000 to "develop and train Alaska natives for employment in the petroleum industry."

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for water taxis in Savannah (Georgia).

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $200,000 for a transit center for the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team.

In 1999 $1,200,000 million to subsidize a park on the Galapagos Islands.

In 2000 the U.S. government spent $100,000 to study the causes of sediment buildup at a Santa Cruz, New Mexico dam.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo, California.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $400,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute to improve the profitability of the state's sheep industry.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $273,000 for the Blue Springs (Missouri) Youth Orchestra Outreach Unit for educational training to combat Goth culture.

In 2003 the U.S. government spent $1,000,000 appropriation for the Center for Public Service and the Common Good (a think tank) at the University of San Francisco.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $400,000 for manure management research at the National Swine Research Center.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,100,000 for the Mountain Made 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.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for exhibits on the Sullivan brothers at the Grout Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $61,000 for the State Historical Society to archive the history of Iowa workers.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,200,000 for the Ohio Arts Council to expand international programs.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,900,000 for the Mountaineer Doctor Television program at West Virginia University.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,000,000 for an educational mall at the Raleigh County Commission in Beckley.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,000,000 for West Virginia University to establish a Center on Obesity.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $260,000 for asparagus technology in the state of Washington.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,200,000 for music education at the GRAMMY Foundation.

In 2000 the U.S. government spent $50,000 for the development of a Welcome Center Facility City for Enumclaw, Washington.

In 1997 - $4,000,000 for the Gambling Impact Study Commission.

In 1997 - $330,000 for Stellar Sea Lion research of the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Consortium.

In 1997 - $785,000 for bluefish/striped bass research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In 1997 - $2,700,000 added by the Senate for the Animal Resource Wing at South Dakota State University.

In 1997 - $4,000,000 added in conference for the Discovery Center of Science and Technology.

In 1997 - $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.

In 1997 - $16,369,000 added by the Senate for public library construction.

In 1997 - $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.

In 1997 - $3,100,000 added by the Senate for the National Writing Project.

In 1997 - $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.).

In 1998 - $220,000 added by the Senate for lowbush blueberry research in Maine.

In 1994 - $221,000 for lowbush blueberry research at the University of Maine in the state of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME).

In 1998 - $150,000 added by the House for the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness.

In 1998 - $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….”

In 1998 - $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.

In 1998 - $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 Charles Corneau’s house, a neighbor and friend of Abraham Lincoln.

In 1998 - $10,912,000 added by the Senate for foreign language assistance.

In 1994 - $200,000 for locoweed research at New Mexico State University in the state of House appropriator Joe Skeen (R-NM). Since 1992, $716,000 has been appropriated, and there is no expected completion date for this research.

In 1994 - $1,000,000 added in the Senate for the Multispecies Aquaculture Center in the state of Senate appropriator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).

In 1994 - $19,600,000 added in the House for the International Fund for Ireland. The conference report “restores language stricken by the Senate and appropriates up to $19,600,000 for the International Fund for Ireland.” In the past, this program has used American taxpayer dollars for a golf video and pony trekking centers.

In 1993 - $19,704,000 for the International Fund for Ireland requested, according to committee sources, by House Speaker Thomas Foley (D-WA).

In 1993 - $9,170,000 added in conference for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission in the district of House appropriator John Murtha (D-PA).

In 1992 - $2,000,000 added in conference by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) for a New York Bight Center for undersea research.

$1.2 TRILLION spent with very little societal benefit to show for it except the ability of incumbent politicians to use taxpayer money to fund their continual reelection. The following random acts of wasteful spending come from the "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" website (http://www.loathemygovernment.com/):

1. $500,000 for a “Teapot Museum” in North Carolina.

2. $3,000,000 to the First Tee Organization whose mission is to “promote character development and life enhancing values through the game of golf.”

3. $500,000 to buy 21 train cabooses to be repurposed for a “caboose motel” in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

4. $150,000 to fix plumbing in Bronx, New York Italian restaurants.

5. $5,600,000 to fix the Anaheim Angels (a major league baseball team and a privately owned and operated company) scoreboard after an earthquake.

6. $5,000,000 to build a new Parliament building in the Solomon Islands, a part of the British Commonwealth.

7. $1,500,000 for a Federal study of parking at truck stops.

8. Over $200,000 for a cat and dog census in a California county.

9. $445,000 for a Hudson River scenic overlook from Route 9 to the waterfront in Poughkeepsie, New York.

10. $77,826 for the study, “Coping With Change in Czechoslovakia.”

11. $125,000 to compile a “Simo-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus.”

12. $400,000 to study the “The Expressive Culture of the San Blas Islands” in Panama.

13. A $1,000,000 Utah study on how to cross the street.

14. $250,000 for research to cut asparagus industry labor costs.

15. $200,000 to Ocean Spray to market white cranberry juice in Great Britain.

16. $2,000,000 to construct a parking facility at the University of Incarnate World, a Catholic institution in San Antonio despite adequate existing parking facilities.

17. $70,000 for a Paper Industry Hall of Fame in Wisconsin.

18. $26,000,000 to operate the selective Service even though there has not been any military draft since 1973.

19. $519,000,000 in farm subsidies in the 1995 - 2003 period, to Riceland Foods in Arkansas. Riceland receives more Federal money in a typical year than all the farmers in 12 other states combined.

20. $300,000 for a feasibility study for the world’s first fully enclosed motor speedway in Ohio.

21. $150,000 to the Grammy Foundation to support Grammy Camp where 60 students learn the music business.

22. $775,000 to the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida - part of a project to provide economic opportunity in areas of low or moderate income. However, Coral Gables’ per capita income is almost 20 percent above the national average.

23. $213,000 for olive fruit fly research in France.

24. $1,900,000 for the Center For Grape Genetics in New York.

25. $2,500,000 for fish waste research in Alaska.

26. $1,200,000 for cormorant control in several states (cormorants are birds - this is one example where you honestly say your taxpayer money is “for the birds”, “flying the coop”, etc.).

27. $750,000 for the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa.


28. $350,000 for the Museum Of Aviation in Warner Robins, Georgia.

29. $250,000 for a bike path between Lexington and Port Sanilax, Michigan.

30. $350,000 to widen Bristol Street in Santa Ana, California.

31. $1.8 million to renovate the Historical Fort Hamilton Community Club in the New York City area.

32. $18.9 million for a center at the University of Massachusetts "dedicated to educating the general public, students, teachers, new Senators and Senate staff about the role and importance of the Senate."

33. $200,000 for the Arkansas Commercial Driver Training Institute.

34. $150,000 for education programs and exhibitions at the Washington DC National Building Museum.

35. $134,000 for the Montana World Trade Center.

36. $100,000 for the Myrtle Beach International Trade and Conference Center.

37. $500,000 for exhibits at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa.

38. $150,000 for exhibits and interactive displays at the Teddy Roosevelt Inaugural Site Foundation.

39. $250,000 for construction of the Monroe County Farmer's Market in Kentucky.

40. $250,000 to renovate the Murphy Theater in Ohio.

41. $194,000 for restoration of the Slater Mill in Rhode Island

42. $150,000 to renovate the Pregone Theater in the Bronx.

43. $100,000 to build the Santa Ana River Trail in California.

What a shameful waste. A few observations and suggestions come to mind:

1. When the Statue of Liberty was badly in need of refurbishment back in the 1970s, no taxpayer money was used to fix it up. It was all financed by citizen and corporate donations. Going forward, the political class should not be able to allocate any money for local projects like the dozens listed above unless that project was more important than the Statue Of Liberty, one of the shining examples of liberty of our country. Thus, if this rule was in place, no Federal taxpayer money would ever be wasted on bike trails, repurposed cabooses, etc. since none of those projects are more worthy of government financing than the Statue of Liberty.
2. Step 44 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" should also be deployed to eliminate the trillion dollars of wasteful spending highlighted above. Step 44 would not allow any Federal money to be used on any project unless that project had a substantial impact on a significant number of citizens from at least five states. For example, Federal money would continue to be used to support Amtrak since that affects many states and many states' citizens across the country, However, under Step 44's criteria, no Federal dollars would ever be used again to build a local river trail, build a local farmers' market, etc., since these types of projects should all be handled with instate tax dollars.
3. And our favorite step from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" also comes into play here. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, "one and done," Many of the above examples of wasteful spending are done by incumbent politicians to show the back home voters how they can get Federal dollars flowing back to their states and Congressional districts, no matter how stupid the projects being funded are. If incumbents knew that they had no chance of being reelected due to term limits, the need to funnel money back home to support their reelection chances goes away.

As we stated above, for those examples of wasteful spending from our website, the vast majority of them get 100% negative ratings from the visitors to the site that vote on each one. Those that do not get 100% negative votes get very few positive votes. Thus, most Americans recognize the insanity of wasting their tax dollars on these types of programs and projects, makes you wonder why the political class does not see it the same way.

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/