GOVERNMENT WASTE; 50 BIGGEST WASTES OF TAXPAYER'S MONEY JUST IN ONE YEAR!



50 Examples of Government Waste

BY: Conn Carroll

The Congressional Budget Office reported that the U.S. government ended its 2009 fiscal year with a deficit of $1.4 trillion, the biggest since 1945.

Washington will spend $33,932 per household in 2009–$8,000 per household more than last year. Following President Barack Obama’s budget, Washington will be spending $33,000 per household (adjusted for inflation) by 2019, and that does not include the costs of Obamacare. This spending is not inevitable.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Washington consistently spent $21,000 per household (adjusted for inflation). Simply returning to that level would balance the budget by 2012 without any tax hikes. Alternatively, returning to the $25,000 per household level (adjusted for inflation) that Washington spent before the current recession would likely balance the budget by 2019 without any tax hikes.

To help move back to these healthier levels of spending, Heritage Senior Policy Analyst Brian Riedl has identified 50 Examples of Government Waste. Eliminating waste cannot balance the budget. But here’s a start:

1. The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.
2. Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.
3. Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.
4. Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them–costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually–fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.
5. The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts.
6. Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.
7. Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.
8. A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, including “over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold.” The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.
9. Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
10. The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
11. The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.
12. Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.
13. Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.
14. A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.
15. The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.
16. Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
17. Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.
18. Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year’s 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.
19. The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.
20. The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.
21. Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines–plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.
22. More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billion cannot be accounted for.
23. Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, “Girls Gone Wild” videos, and at least one sex change operation.
24. Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.
25. Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.
26. The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY)–but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department’s budget.
27. Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches–even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.
28. A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in “stimulus” funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.
29. The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.
30. Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.
31. Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling, $69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.
32. Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.
33. Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.
34. Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.
35. The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.
36. Suburban families are receiving large farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards–subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want.
37. Congress appropriated $20 million for “commemoration of success” celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.
38. Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.
39. Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.
40. North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in “stimulus” funds for a project that its mayor described as “a long way from the top priority.”
41. The National Institutes of Health spends $1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.
42. Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.
43. Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers–the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.
44. Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.
45. Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.
46. Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.
47. The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies.
48. Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.
49. The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.
50. The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans’ personal data.

At a time when the U.S. national debt is closing in on 14 trillion dollars, government waste just seems more out of control than ever. The following are 20 of the craziest things that the U.S. government is spending money on....

#1 A total of $3 million has been granted to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so that they can play video games such as World of Warcraft. The goal of this "video game research" is reportedly to study how "emerging forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life can help organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace."

#2 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.

#3 $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.

#4 A professor at Stanford University received $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love. So far one of the key findings of this "research" is that the Internet is a safer and more discreet way to find same-sex partners.

#5 The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians "gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions."

#6 The National Institutes of Health spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.

#7 Approximately $1 million of U.S. taxpayer money was used to create poetry for the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Chicago zoos. The goal of the "poetry" is to help raise awareness on environmental issues.

#8 The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use. This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.

#9 $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a "museum of neon signs" in Las Vegas, Nevada.

#10 $35 million was reportedly paid out by Medicare to 118 "phantom" medical clinics that never even existed. Apparently these "phantom" medical clinics were established by a network of criminal gangs as a way to defraud the U.S. government.

#11 The Conservation Commission of Monkton, Vermont got $150,000 from the federal government to construct a "critter crossing". Thanks to U.S. government money, the lives of "thousands" of migrating salamanders are now being saved.

#12 In California, one park received $440,000 in federal funds to perform "green energy upgrades" on a building that has not been used for a decade.

#13 $440,955 was spent this past year on an office for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he rarely even visits.

#14 One Tennessee library was given $5,000 in federal funds to host a series of video game parties.

#15 The U.S. Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on a television commercial during the Super Bowl that was so poorly produced that virtually nobody understood what is was trying to say.

#16 A professor at Dartmouth University received $137,530 to create a "recession-themed" video game entitled "Layoff".

#17 The National Science Foundation gave the Minnesota Zoo over $600,000 so that they could develop an online video game called "Wolfquest".

#18 A pizzeria in Iowa was given $60,000 to renovate the pizzeria's facade and give it a more "inviting feel".

#19 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave one enterprising group of farmers $30,000 to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight "haycations". This one sounds like something that Dwight Schrute would have dreamed up.

#20 Almost unbelievably, the National Institutes of Health was given $800,000 in "stimulus funds" to study the impact of a "genital-washing program" on men in South Africa.

In light of all this, is it any wonder why the approval rating of Congress recently hit another new record low?

According to the most recent Gallup poll, only 13 percent of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing.

Just think about that - only 13 percent!

Our politicians seem very confused about why there is so much anger in the country today. Well, there are certainly a lot of reasons for it, including the fact that the U.S. economy is on the verge of collapse, but it certainly doesn't help that our government is basically flushing our tax dollars down the toilet and spending them on some of the most wasteful things imaginable.

Comments:

Elizabeth Cox, Washi
Speaking of government waste has the thought occured to anyone that the reason the administration does not want the bills proposed to be read is because of the pet projects that are hung on the bills. Especially the Obamacare health bill?

Albert campbellsvill
I just don't know what to say,this just makes you sick if you have any kind of common sense.Ive said for years if they ended fraud,waste and theft we would have a huge surplus.these people steeling from us is downright evil,but they are never held accountable.I thought Obama was going to fix all this,CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN.

bobbie Jay
Thank you Conn and Brian.

If given an in depth research of Obama's employment history and present demeanor, there's little doubt he is directly or indirectly involved in most of the waste. He ignores his duty to correct the current waste. His will is to increase.

John, Madison, WI
Hmmm. NO mention of the 2 wars and direct spending on TARP. Guess those were too obvious.

Sudbrook, Balt
Is there no mercy in Congress on real people who go without things so that they can waste money?

James Becker
Would we really want 'this government' to run our health care?

Paul Dibble Ada, MI
I think this kind of waste is inevitable in government--regardless of who is in power. The answer is not cleaning up the waste (though we can try). The answer is reducing the size and power of the government.

Greg Lawritson, Sout · 105 weeks ago
.... what's the difference between what's been found and organized crime? Nothing. It's all about self-entitlement on the backs of others under the threat of harsh consequences. Instead of "Knuckles and "Guido" visiting you late one night to help you find your wallet, ... we have the IRS performing 'walletectomies' without due process of law. Try and find an attorney who will honestly fight the IRS, ... near impossible. We are self destructing - imploding from the inside, ... we'll continue to ignore what has been described above and stand by apathetically, hanging on to our individual slice of freedom and job like zebras in the herd hoping the lions in Washington don't pick us off to quickly. I love this country, but am ashamed of our leadership and what they are doing to our legacy.

D.R., Orlando, FL
If the waste is in the private sector, the tax payers are not being forced to pay for the waste, whoever owns the company is. And if the company owner can discover who is robbing his company he can have them charged, tried and sent to prison if found guilty. Unfortunately, in the government sector the crooks get made cabinet secretaries, presidential "czars", congress people, and senators so they can rob the tax payers ever more!

Patricia Brittell
I think I made a comment in another issue that would have fit this better. I will just shorten it to say this; Obama wants to get as many people on welfare as possible. This is in the plan to overtake the government and bring about a dictatorship. When people completely depend on the government to feed, house, and medicate them the country will go broke because there won't be enough taxes or tax payers to keep up the handouts. It might sound crazy to you, but think about it. I would venture to say most of the uneployment right now quit their jobs because, woopee, now they can sit on their ass and get paid for it. We have millions on welfare, the give-me-free individuals.

Then the big Corporations take their business' to foreign countries so they can pay cheap wages. Everything thats happening now was a plan years ago and the very wealthy hired Obama as their puppet to reinforce the evils with his charismatic speeches. We need more than money to fight, we need people in huge numbers if we want to win back our free country and the Constitution.

Bobbie Jay
That's right. Private sector pays their own money if trouble arises, without infringing on the tax payer. Everything the government is doing outside their job of upholding the American Constitution, is a total violation and financial infringement on innocent taxpayers who are accustomed to living by the American Constitution that the government is freely destroying...

When there's financial mayhem in government it is usually covered up and an increase of tax to boot. More government thievery!

U.S. Will Pay $2.6 Million to Train Chinese Prostitutes to Drink Responsibly on the Job | Republican Party of Milwaukee County
[...] by Edwin Mora, Tuesday, May 12, 2009 (CNSNews.com) -- The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job. Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. The grant, made last November, refers to prostitutes as "female sex workers"--or FSW--and their handlers as "gatekeepers." . . . Li said his study is being done in China rather than the U.S. because prostitution occurs with alcohol use in the United States like it does in China, Americans will be able to benefit from the project’s findings. Read more at http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=47976 (The above is one of) 50 Examples of Government Waste Read more examples at ttp://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/08/50-examples-of-government-waste/ [...]

Miles, California
"Before we get too self-righteous about government misallocations, is there any documentation about private sector misallocations?"

There aren't any because the private sector has economic calculation through the free price mechanism. Anyone who's taken a basic course in Econ 101 would tell you that. An act of waste from a private institution would be a loss of profit, which is that last thing a private institution would want to do. It would mean debt and impoverishment for workers and employees (not to mention shareholders). Government however, isn't driven by that same price mechanism. They coercively plunder revenue and redistribute wealth in accordance to THEIR own consent as opposed to the consumers. People voluntarily consent to the purchase of private services, ergo the businesses adjusts their product/services to the consumers desires to remain profitable. People DON'T voluntarily consent to the purchase of government services, ergo government has no motivation to remain profitable nor do they understand what the citizens truly want or need to improve the quality in product/services. The government isn't threatened to remain profitable from price and competition like business is nor are they motivated to improve their quality of service/product again like the business is.

As for abolishing organizations? Yes, as long as they're government run. I'd vote for any politician promising to have a field day gutting these frivolous and unconstitutional bureaucracies.

Donn, Ohio
After reading this list, I don't think I will be so sick about not being able to pay my back taxes due to loss of work.

David California
Gee I wonder why folks don't like paying taxes. It seems to me if the Government would clean up its act we would have no taxes at all.

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