Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) offers his annual guided tour of high-ticket federal programs – from defense to academia – that he says epitomize the money-burning ways of Washington. While we are $700 Billion dollars in debt, there is good news. Someone lied to us. We’re not broke because of profligate spending on social programs such as food stamps and Social Security. Those programs are just a drop in the ocean compared to some zany government expenditures. With a bit of judicious pruning, we may even be able to afford to extend luxury programs like unemployment benefits and school lunches!
Brace yourself for a shock, but the military and other government agencies are wasting (approximately) squadzillions of dollars and often junking the objects of their desire. Tom Coburn claims there are over one hundred such expensive debacles…But we get the picture with a few examples, here are but two:
The Army simply had to have a $297 Million dollar blimp – to ‘oversee’ war. They flew it around for a bit, and then became disenchanted. Perhaps they googled the success and history of blimps? Whatever the reason, the Army quickly sold it back to the contractor, for a stunning $300,000…Oh the humanity, crafty traders (with your money) they’re not.
To be fair, not all stupid spending goes to war. Sometimes they blow money on love. $978 Thousand was allocated to study romance novels. Why? If you know, please inform me. In fact, if you know who proposed and carried out the ‘study’ please let me know!
My main project for 2014 is to learn the fine art of government grant writing. I believe the native people of Hawaii are far overdue for a study…Or the people of Belize, or maybe Tahiti?