50 Examples of Government Waste

From the Heritage Foundation, below are my favorites.
50 Examples of Government Waste

3. Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties

7. Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job

11. The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida

15. The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades

20. The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland

42. Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use

46. Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia

49. The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land

50. The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans' personal data

Each example is followed by the citation in case your looking for verification


-E-

[edit on 7-10-2009 by MysterE]

Hey #7 is very important. It's a health and safety concern

Many American businessmen travel to China. They demand that their prostitutes be at least halfway sober.

reply to post by whatukno


I like how they don't wan't them to quit, they just want them to be more responsible about it!

-E-

I think the one about farmers is so stupid, but they want centralised farms now everywhere.

Farming was a good job, but today it is only the massive farms that still exist.

#11 seems so far fetched--how could they spend that much money shipping a screw, or that is just what the invoice says? mmmm

#49 the farm subsidies are given to the people with money regardless if it is for not farming their land, or digging a pond, or anything.

Stuff like this makes me not give a crap about the national deficit.

sounds more like 50 reasons to expel your government.

How many people just shrugged and continued on without having one neuron fire off? Whenever i say things like this to friends and others, 98% of the time I get "that just the way it is, I guess"

Really? I am really starting to get angry about sheeple not even trying when facts are presented to them.

Its sad, just really really sad.

This is not going to change until we start throwing the Democrats and Republicans out of office. When are people going to wake up? When Republicans are in power, they do everything they can to screw with the Democrats and when the Democrats are in power they do everything they can to screw with the Republicans. Meanwhile the country goes to hell.

We need several things to get back on track.

1. Term limits. We need to stop the Professional Politician and replace him with the Citizen-Statesman.

2. Lobbying needs to be made a capital crime. Representatives and Senators are there in Washington to do the bidding of their constituency. That is the people who reside in their particular Congressional District. We cannot be sure that they are beholding and listening only to their constituency when lobbyists ply them with money, liquor, and women, and free jets to foreign vacation spots.

If lobbyists have a point to make, then it needs to be made to the constituency. If the constituency feels it is a good idea, then they need to tell their Representatives, and Senators to vote for it.

3. All of the offices in the Capitol building need to have the doors removed from the hinges. No government business should be carried out behind closed doors.

4. Politicians who violate the trust of the people need to serve life prison terms in real prisons among the general population. No more"country club" prisons for the rich and influential. You have an affair while in office....see ya in prison. You take money or a home or services from some contractor.......see ya in prison.

5. Scamming the government with bogus charges or contracts needs to also be made a capital offense. People seem to think they are playing the lottery instead of providing goods and services at fair rates to their country.

I am groingrinder and I approve this message.




[edit on 10-14-2009 by groingrinder]

Just the nature of bureaucracy. When I was a kid stories about the million dollar toilet seat were on 60 Minutes. That was 20+ years ago.

Nothing has changed. If anything the waste has grown in the past couple of decades.

Any time spent complaining or arguing or attempting to justify is all wasted. There is really only one way left to fix the problem. Complete collapse of everything 'federal.'

I don't know just how much money it costs we tax payers but did you know the CIA is still actively trying to over throw Castro and the Cuban government???? After how many years????
See my earlier post of the latest failed attempt
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by groingrinder

Hi Groingrinder,
I would add one thing to your excellent post.

6. Stop paying them too much. Instead pay them the average weekly wage plus phone and car. Then you will know who is there to do good for the community and who wants the Lifestyle of Politics.

The rest of what you wrote is how I think about the current two party preferred system of government where those in opposition think they must oppose everything and try to gain power for themselves instead of doing what is good for the population.



[edit on 12-11-2009 by Tayesin]

I've posted some more links about government waste in this thread here, including some new documentary coming out later this year.