The office of Senator Tom Coburn
(R-Okla.) on Tuesday released a 177-page overview of questionable
projects that have been allotted nearly $30 billion in federal funds.
From $15,000 spent on a project involving the collection of thousands of gallons of human urine (page 76 of the report) to $5 million spent on crystal stemware for the U.S. State Department (page 75 of the report)
to the $3 million NASA plans to spend on studying Congress, Coburn’s
fourth annual “Wastebook” report is one example of out-of-control
government spending after another.
“When it comes to spending your money,
those in Washington tend to see no waste, speak no waste and cut no
waste,” Coburn said in the report.
Here are six bizarre examples of “egregious federal spending” in Coburn’s “Wastebook 2013”:
6. Uncle Sam Looking for Romance on the Web – $914,000
The Popular Romance Project has
received nearly $1 million in federal funds from the National Endowment
of the Humanities (NEH) since 2010, “Wastebook 2013” reported.
The purpose of the program is to
“explore the fascinating, often contradictory origins and influences of
popular romance as told in novels, films, comics, advice books, songs,
and internet fan fiction, taking a global perspective—while looking back
across time as far as the ancient Greeks.”
The project received approximately $914,000 in fiscal year 2013.
“Taking love and its stories seriously,
wherever they may be found, the Popular Romance Project will spark a
lively, thoughtful conversation between fans, authors, scholars, and the
general public about the writing, production, and consumption of
popular romance, including its history and transformation in the digital
age,” the project’s site reads.
Some of the recent topics discussed by
the project include the popular teen book series “Twilight” and the
Carly Rae Jepsen’s bubblegum pop song “Call Me Maybe.”
5. Paid to Do Nothing (Government-Wide) — Approximately $400 million
It cost approximately $2 billion to
provide back pay to federal employees “for services that could not be
performed” due to the 16-day partial government shutdown, according to
the White House.
“Total compensation costs, including
benefits, are about 30 percent larger, in the range of $2.5 billion,”
the White House report said.
Coburn’s report adds: “More than
100,000 non-essential federal employees being paid a salary of at least
$100,000 were furloughed as non-essential. Each of these was paid $4,000
for the time off of work during the shutdown.”
The “Wastebook” report stresses that
Congress is more to blame for this than the civil servants who received
pay for “services that could not be performed.”
“(L)ike everyone else, (civil servants)
have bills to pay,” the report reads. “But it is truly unfair to charge
billions of dollars to pay others not to work to taxpayers working to
cover their own bills and the bills of the government. This is
especially true when the non-essential federal employee is being
compensated more than twice the average U.S. family income of $51,000.”
4. A Whole Bunch of Money for a “Moosical” — $10,000
The National Endowment of the Arts awarded approximately $10,000 for a Christmas-themed show titled “Mooseltoe: A New Moosical.”
The show will be touring the nation this Christmas.
“Taxpayer dollars pay for ‘Mooseltoe’
to feature voices from celebrities from Broadway, television, and
movies, as well as costumes from the costume designer of Broadway’s ‘The
Lion King,’” the report says.
“In addition to its original songs,
parents will appreciate the 16 characters in ‘Mooseltoe’ that are
entertaining their children on the taxpayers’ dime, including three
snobby penguins, a mobster snowman, and a fat walrus,” it adds.
Again, $10,000.
3. A Mega-Blimp That Doesn’t Work — $297 Million
The U.S. Army spent nearly four years
and $300 million developing a mega-blimp that it eventually scraped. The
blimp was designed to be the size of a football field and would be used
to perform surveillance duties in Afghanistan.
But in 2013, the Army decided it had enough of the blimp .
“(T)he Army closed the blimp’s eye
forever when it brought the project to a halt after spending nearly $300
million,” Coburn’s report reads. “The Army sold the airship back to the
contractor that was building it for just $301,000.”
2. NASA Pays to Study How Congress Works — $3 Million
NASA plans to spend nearly $3 million to study how Congress works.
The agency plans to hold seminars that
will provide participants with “a comprehensive look at how Congress is
organized, the key players and their roles, how the legislative process
really works, and how Congress directly affects the daily operations of
every department and agency in the Executive Branch.”
Seminars hosted by NASA and Georgetown
University will also provide participants with “briefings from experts
in the field,” opportunities “to attend committee hearings, and observe
floor action.”
Participants will be given a “hands-on
understanding of the congressional process and procedures as well as
the culture that is the United States Congress,” NASA said.
The program is expected to cost NASA around $3 million starting December 2012 and running trough December 2017.
1. Nearly $300,000 for a Video Game
The National Endowment of the
Humanities has awarded a professor at Hope College nearly $300,000 for a
multi-player game that connects Civil War re-enactors online.
The game, titled “Valley Sim,” allows
students to “take on the identity of one of 25 real-life citizens of two
communities that were on opposite sides of the Civil War.”
The game is based almost entirely on an Internet chat system.
“The NEH grant will be used to expand
the basic framework of the game into a tool that can be applied to other
areas of the humanities,” the Coburn report adds. “Perhaps we’ll see
Battlefield or Call of Duty replacing WWII lectures? Or maybe the money
can prop up something less wasteful in the realm of higher education. As
cool as it might be to introduce games into the classroom, it might be a
better idea to convince students to put the controller down and get
back to the basics instead.”
Keep in mind the above are just six examples
of the dozens and dozens of bizarre projects unearthed by Sen. Coburn’s
office. There are many, many more contained in the report. Some are
simply puzzling (money for alcohol for a dry county) and some are
infuriating ($52,000 in continued pay for Fort Hood shooter Nidal
Hasan).
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