Government
Waste: 20 Of The Craziest Things That The U.S. Government Is Spending Money On
By Michael Snyder
You are not going to believe some of the things that the
U.S. government is spending money on. According to a shocking new report,
U.S. taxpayer money is being spent to study World of Warcraft, to study how
Americans find love on the Internet, and to study the behavior of male
prostitutes in Vietnam. Not only that, money from the federal government
is also being used to renovate a pizzeria in Iowa and to help a library in
Tennessee host video game parties. These are just some of the examples in
a new report on government waste from Senator Tom Coburn entitled "Wastebook 2010".
Even as tens of millions of American families find themselves suffering through
the worst economic downturn in modern history, the U.S. government continues to
spend money on some of the craziest and most frivolous things imaginable.
Every single year articles are written and news stories are done about the
horrific government waste that is taking place and yet every single year it
just keeps getting worse. So just what in the world is going on here?
It almost seems as though Congress actually enjoys inventing
new ways to waste U.S. taxpayer money. It seems nearly inconceivable that
anyone could keep a straight face while trying to justify spending money on
many of the things in the list below.
At a time when the U.S. national debt is closing in on 17
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.
#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.
#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.
It would be bad enough if the federal government was
swimming in money, but the truth is that all of this waste is being committed
at a time when the U.S. government is nearing bankruptcy.
Over the last 30 years, the U.S. national debt has gotten 13
times larger. We have accumulated the largest debt in the history of the
world and there is no end in sight.
In fact, we are rapidly running out of people to borrow
money from. According to the Wall Street Journal, in order to repay
maturing bonds and finance the exploding budget deficit, the U.S. government will have
to borrow 4.2 trillion dollars in 2011.
Eventually the rest of the world is going to lose confidence
in the ability of the U.S. government to repay all of this debt. Once
confidence in U.S. Treasuries is totally gone, and there are already signs this is starting to
happen, the game will be over and the U.S. financial system will collapse.
But the U.S. Congress just continues to act like it is
"business as usual" and the wasteful spending just continues to get
worse. Someday historians will look back and think that we must have been
a nation full of idiots and morons.
For decades our politicians have been spending us into
oblivion, yet we keep sending the vast majority of them back to Washington D.C.
every time an election rolls around and the mainstream media keeps assuring us
that our "respected leaders" know exactly what they are doing and
that everything is going to be okay somehow.
It is almost as if some sort of collective insanity has
overtaken most Americans. The path we are on inevitably leads to national
bankruptcy and the destruction of our financial system, but only a small
percentage of the population seems to care.
Well, in the end we will reap what we have sown.
Unfortunately, the economic pain that is coming is going to be devastating for
all of us - including those of us who are awake and are trying desperately to
change things.
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