Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has published his fifth installment of
Wastebook, an annual tragicomic testimony to the power of
diffused costs and concentrated benefits. The catalog of 100
asinine government expenditures is wholesome fun for the whole
fiscally conservative family—especially your earnest Republican
aunt who sends you chain emails with that
Mark Twain quote we’ve all seen a million times.
Coburn’s report has it all, from government bailouts for a sheep
research center in Idaho to high-end gym memberships for Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) employees. So pour yourself a stiff
drink (you’ll need it), sit back, and prepare to have your priors
confirmed and your hopes dashed. Because, really, if we can’t stop
the government from spending more than $300,000 to research
synchronized sea monkey dancing, surely we are doomed.
Some spending snafus will be old hat to Reason readers.
Taxpayer
subsidies for sports stadia: $146 million. DHS
grants for SWAT equipment to two sleepy New York towns:
$200,000. A
bankrupt United States Postal Service shipping groceries to
remote Alaskan villages: $77 million.
Others should come as no surprise. The demolition of a new
bridge because it was partially built with Canadian steel: $45,000.
A grant for the Vermont Historical Society to chronicle the state’s
hippie movement: $117,521. The Pentagon destroying $6 billion worth
of unneeded ammunition: $1 billion.
In total, Coburn documents $25 billion in ridiculous government
spending. In a world of multitrillion-dollar budgets, that’s a mere
rounding error. But the report isn’t meant to exhaustively document
all government waste—not even the most egregious. After all,
Medicaid
improperly spent over $14 billion in 2013, which doesn’t make
the list. Rather, the report serves as a colorful reminder that
flush, powerful government agencies combined with private special
interests make for a polity straight out of Joseph Heller.
Read the whole thing
here. And weep.
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