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Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn on Tuesday released a report detailing what he says are the 100 worst examples of waste in the stimulus law. Coburn's list targets projects from coast to coast, and he says those unnecessary projects are costing taxpayers more than $5 billion.
Senator Coburn says he has two staff members whose job is following all stimulus contracts and keeping their eyes on any new ones that pop up to make sure money is appropriated to necessary projects.
26. Rather than help welfare recipients obtain jobs and escape poverty, $1 million will be used to study whether 300 people in Chicago are healthier when living in “green” public housing facilities.
27. The National Institute of Health gives Indiana University professor $356,000 to study how kids perceive foreign accents. The grant was given to the University of Indiana, which has an endowment of more than $1.5 billion, to “test how children perceive foreign-accented speech compared to native-accented speech.” It will also determine how such accents might influence speech development in children.
29. Michigan will spend $983,952 for streetscaping in Ann Arbor. The city plans to install “decorative sidewalks and crosswalks, planters, landscaping, decorative lighting, trees, trash receptacles, benches and bike loops.”
38. Yale and the University of Connecticut are receiving $850,000 in stimulus for research “to study how paying attention improves performance of difficult tasks.”
65. Washington, North Carolina is using stimulus funds to pay for “project-funding manager” whose job it is to secure even more stimulus funds. The City hopes to pay the new “projectfunding manager” to identify available Stimulus money using a $40,234 grant from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program which, in turn, received funding through the stimulus bill.
92. U.S.-Canada border crossings that average less than 2 passenger cars per day and 2-3 trucks a month get millions from stimulus funds. U.S.-Mexico border crossings with 20,000 vehicle crossings per day get nothing.