GSA?- YOU AINT SEEN NOTHIN YET!

[carol ann parisi]

GSA? YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET!

• Posted by USARogue on April 24, 2012 at 9:31pm
• View Blog

Our corrupt government is being exposed regularly nowadays. Solyndra, Fast-N-Furious, the Secret Service Scandal and the recent party on our dime,,,GSA (Government Services Administration) convention. The GSA scandal is especially enraging because those of us who understand how incompetent, corrupt and unsustainable our government is realize that waste fraud and abuse (WFA) are a result of the incompetence and corruption.

First of all we have to put this into perspective. Our Budgets and GDP are now measured in Trillions of dollars. That's TRILLIONS with a "T". Call me old fashioned but I still consider $1 million dollars a hell of a lot of money. However, in our hallowed halls of Congress, the White House and State legislatures they don't. I guess when many State budget deficits are in the tens of billions of dollars a mere million dollars is simply a rounding error number. This is the problem. This mentality has unfortunately "trickled down" into the electorate. This was exemplified last year during the Madison Wisconsin protests against Gov. Scott Walker at the State Capitol. Initial estimates of damage from the violence and vandalism were obviously exaggerated at between $5 million and $7 million. The cost, however, did come in at over $347,000. The Left, in their eternal delusion, felt this was somehow both acceptable and justified because it was only $347,000! This just shows the disconnect the Liberals/Progressives have with the value of a dollar. No matter how much it cost to repair the Wisconsin Capitol, it was too much. It should never have happened.

My favorite analogy of how much a trillion dollars is this. If you give someone a dollar every second, it will take you twelve days to give them a million dollars. It will take you 32 years to give them a billion dollars. Finally it will take you 32,000 years to give them a trillion dollars! So, having said that I have compiled a list of some of the WFA that has been going on in our government.

I posted a few of these in a comment and was asked for the links. I posted my links at the bottom. As you'll see this rampant government corruption has been going on for decades. With, as Judson calls them, "The Party of Treason", and the GOBP (Good Ole Boys Party) unable to find a single penny of deficit/debt reduction I think we can send them this list and show them exactly how and where to make cuts. I have sent many of these lists to my Representative and Senators. Maybe if we all start sending them to all the criminals in Washington they will get the message.  I've even sent these to my State legislators to make them aware. Now, not that our elected officials aren't aware of this massive corruption they just don't want to address it for fear of losing votes.

So, having said all this here is my list. WARNING: It's long.

1. The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.
2. Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.
3. Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.
4. Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them–costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually–fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.
5. The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” series identifying more than $140 billion in potential spending cuts.
6. Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.
7. Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.
8. A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, including “over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold.” The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.
9. Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
10. The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
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.
12. Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.
13. Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $200 billion annually. (See link below for details)
14. A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.
15. The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.
16. Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
17. Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.
18. Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year’s 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.
19. The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.
20. The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.
21. Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines–plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.
22. More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billion cannot be accounted for.
23. Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, “Girls Gone Wild” videos, and at least one sex change operation.
24. Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.
25. Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.
26. The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY)–but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department’s budget.
27. Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches–even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.
28. A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in “stimulus” funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.
29. The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.
30. Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks
31. Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling, $69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.
32. Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.
33. Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.
34. Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.
35. The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.
36. Suburban families are receiving large farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards–subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want.
37. Congress appropriated $20 million for “commemoration of success” celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.
38. Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.
39. Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.
40. North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in “stimulus” funds for a project that its mayor described as “a long way from the top priority.”
41. The National Institutes of Health spends $1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.
42. Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.
43. Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers–the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.
44. Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.
45. Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.
46. Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.
47. The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies.
48. Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.
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.

*Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida used $15,551 in stimulus money to pay two researchers to study how alcohol affects a mouse's motor functions.

*The U.S. government handed over a staggering $54 million in "stimulus cash" to Connecticut's politically-connected Mohegan Indian tribe, which runs one of the highest grossing casinos in the country.

*Syracuse professor of psychology Michael Carey received $219,000 in federal stimulus money for a study that examines the sex patterns of college women.

*$1.15 million in stimulus funds was allocated for the installation of a new guard rail around the non-existent Optima Lake in Oklahoma.

*Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo received $389,000 to pay 100 residents of Buffalo $45 each to record how much malt liquor they drink and how much pot they smoke each day.  Instead of spending nearly $400,000, the U.S. government could have achieved the same goal by having a couple of scientists join a fraternity.

*$100,000 in federal stimulus funds were used for a martini bar and a brazilian steakhouse.

*A dinner cruise company in Chicago got nearly $1 million in stimulus funds to combat terrorism.

*$233,000 in stimulus money went to the University of California at San Diego to study why Africans vote.

*The Cactus Bug Project at the University Of Florida was allocated $325,394 in stimulus funds to study the mating decisions of cactus bugs.  According to the project proposal, one of the questions that will be answered by the study is this: "Whether males with large weapons are more or less attractive to females."

*One Denver developer received $13 million in tax credits to construct a senior housing complex despite that fact that the same developer is being sued as a slumlord for running rodent-infested apartment buildings in the city of San Francisco.

*Sheltering Arms Senior Services was awarded a contract worth $22.3 million in stimulus money to weatherize homes for poor families in Houston, Texas - but a new report from Texas Watchdog says that the weatherization work was performed so badly that 33 of the 53 homes will need to be completely redone.

*A liberal theater in Minnesota named "In the Heart of the Beast" (in reference to a well known quote by communist radical Che Guevara) received $100,000 for socially conscious puppet shows.

*California's inspector general found that $1 million in stimulus funds for a program to give summer jobs to young people was improperly used for overhead expenses such as rent and utility bills.

*Landon Cox, a Duke University assistant professor of computer science, was awarded $498,000 in stimulus money to study Facebook.

*The town of Union, New York is being urged to spend $578,000 in stimulus money that it did not request for a homelessness problem that it claims it does not have.

*Lastly, who could forget the $3.4 million "ecopassage" to help turtles cross a highway in Tallahassee, Florida?

* 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."

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.

* $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.

* 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.

* The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians "gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions."

* The National Institutes of Health spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.

* 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.

* 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.

* $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a "museum of neon signs" in Las Vegas, Nevada.

* $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.

* 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.

* 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.

* $440,955 was spent this past year on an office for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he rarely even visits.

* One Tennessee library was given $5,000 in federal funds to host a series of video game parties.

* 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.

* A professor at Dartmouth University received $137,530 to create a "recession-themed" video game entitled "Layoff".

* The National Science Foundation gave the Minnesota Zoo over $600,000 so that they could develop an online video game called "Wolfquest".

* A pizzeria in Iowa was given $60,000 to renovate the pizzeria's facade and give it a more "inviting feel".

* 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.

* 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.

* The Stimulus Plan The National Institutes of Health spending more than $400,000 in taxpayer money by paying researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior while drunk -- and just what can be done about it.

* The U.S. government is spending $2.6 million to make sure prostitutes in China consume less alcohol while working. As part of the five-year study that the National Institutes of Health bankrolled, researchers are visiting more than 100 houses of prostitution to monitor their employees, designated as FSWs, or female sex workers.

* The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a study on the use of ecstasy, LSD and other “party drugs” in Porto Alegre, Brazil. To do this, U.S. taxpayers will invest $117,876 for the three-year study, conducted by researchers from the University of Delaware, who will work in collaboration with researchers from Brazil's Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

* Federal employees wasted at least $146 million over a one-year period in business- or first-class airline tickets bought in violation of travel policies, congressional investigators say.

* It looks like Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is going to get his wish – $2 million in taxpayer funding for a library commemorating his 37 years in the House of Representatives. The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public service will serve as a repository for his "papers," and the congressman will have his own office in the Harlem complex.
* The earned income tax credit (EITC) provides $31 billion in refundable tax credits to 19 million low-income families. * * The IRS estimates that $8.5 billion to $9.9 billion of this amount—nearly one-third—is wasted in overpayments.

* A recent audit revealed that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million.

* Since World War II, the U.S. has spent $1.2 trillion on foreign aid to 70 countries – and all are worse off than they were in 1980, according to the U.N.

* For the Department of Commerce for giving the City and County of Honolulu $28,600 in 1981 to study how they could spend another $250,000 for a good surfing beach.

* For the Health Care Financing Administration for Medicaid payments to psychiatrists for unscheduled, coincidental meetings with patients who were attending basketball games, sitting on stoops, etc. -- the cost of which was between $40 and $80 million from 1981 to 1984.

* The National Endowment for the Humanities for a $25,000 grant in 1977 to study why people cheat, lie and act rudely on local Virginia tennis courts.

* The Office of Education for spending $219,592 in 1978 to develop a curriculum to teach college students how to watch television.

* The Environmental Protection Agency for spending an extra $1 million to $1.2 million in 1980 to preserve a Trenton, NJ sewer as a historical monument.

* In 2005 - $469,000 for the National Wildlife Turkey Federation in South Carolina

* In 2005 - $100,000 for the Punxsatawny Weather Discovery Center Museum

* In 2005 - $350,000 for the Inner Harmony Foundation and Wellness Center in Scranton, Penn.

* In 2005 - $1,430,000 for various Halls of Fame, including $250,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn., and $70,000 for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wis.;

* Medicare, the U.S. health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled, erroneously paid out $19.9 billion during fiscal 2004, up from $19.6 billion a year earlier, because of mistakes, waste and fraud, a government report said. In most cases, hospitals and doctors billed for medically unnecessary services or didn't provide proper documentation to support the fees for services.

* The GAO estimated that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department spent an estimated $100 million for airline tickets that were not used over a six-year period and failed to seek refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable.

* While Andrew Cuomo was HUD Secretary under Bill Clinton, the agency set up a "Creative Wellness" program that spent $1,100,000 million taxpayer dollars on “gem” bags and taught public tenants to burn incense.

* The study, titled "Status/Dominance and Motivational Effects on Nonverbal Sensitivity and Smiling," attempts to find out if it's really true that women smile more than men, and if people of higher status smile less. Judith Hall, a highly respected researcher at Northeastern University in Boston, is conducting the smile study — and it is not her first. Since 1993, she has been awarded more than $500,000.

* A National Science Foundation study looking at whether White House reporters have become more adversarial sounds a bit strange to reporters and critics. Even more surprising: the study cost taxpayers $180,000.

* In 2001 more than $600,000 in tax money was spent on researching the sex lives of South African ground squirrels.

* The head of the IRS sent out a notice to every person advising them that they would be receiving a tax refund in 2001 - the estimated cost $30,000,000.

* In 1998 more than $800,000 was approved for a coal library in Pennsylvania. Defenders staed that it would provide historical insight into a very important part of Pennsylvania and history.

* In 2001 the U.S.. Government gave $5,000,000 to the University of Alaska, North Pacific University, and the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation to fund the "stellar sea lion recovery plan."

* In the year 2001, Congress appropriated $340,000,000 in federal tax dollars to PBS (Public Broadcasting Services).

* In 1999 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for a Mississippi research project on "manure handling and disposal".

* In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1,500,000 million to promote silk production in Laos

* In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1 ,000,000 for the "eradication of Brown Tree Snakes" (Hawaii).

* In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1,000,000 to "develop and train Alaska natives for employment in the petroleum industry."

* In 1999 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for water taxis in Savannah (Georgia)

* In 1999 the U.S. government spent $200,000 for a transit center for the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team.

* In 1999 $1,200,000 million to subsidize a park on the Galapagos Islands.

* In 2000 the U.S. government spent $100,000 to study the causes of sediment buildup at a Santa Cruz, New Mexico dam.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo, California.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $400,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute to improve the profitability of the state's sheep industry.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $273,000 for the Blue Springs (Missouri) Youth Orchestra Outreach Unit for educational training to combat Goth culture

* In 2003 the U.S. government spent $1,000,000 appropriation for the Center for Public Service and the Common Good (a think tank) at the University of San Francisco.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $400,000 for manure management research at the National Swine Research Center.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,100,000 for the MountainMade Foundation in Thomas, West Virginia for business development and the education of artists and craftspeople.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $4,000,000 to implement the forest and fish report of the Washington State.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for exhibits on the Sullivan brothers at the Grout Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $61,000 for the State Historical Society to archive the history of Iowa workers.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,200,000 for the Ohio Arts Council to expand international programs.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,900,000 for the Mountaineer Doctor Television program at West Virginia University;

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,000,000 for an educational mall at the Raleigh County Commission in Beckley.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,000,000 for West Virginia University to establish a Center on Obesity.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $260,000 for asparagus technology in the stae of Washington.

* In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,200,000 for music education at the GRAMMY Foundation

* In 2000 the U.S. government spent $50,000 for the development of a Welcome Center Facility City for Enumclaw, Washington.

* In 1997 - $4,000,000 for the Gambling Impact Study Commission.

* In 1997 - $330,000 for Stellar Sea Lion research of the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Consortium.

* In 1997 - $785,000 for bluefish/striped bass research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

* In 1997 - $2,700,000 added by the Senate for the Animal Resource Wing at South Dakota State University

* In 1997 - $4,000,000 added in conference for the Discovery Center of Science and Technology.

* In 1997 - $19,600,000 added by the House for the International Fund for Ireland, a program that tries to aid the peace process in Ireland by paying for golf videos, pony trekking centers, and sweater exports.

* In 1997 - $16,369,000 added by the Senate for public library construction.

* In 1997 - $9,469,000 added in conference for Migrant Education programs including: $7,441,000 for the High School Equivalency Program; and $2,028,000 for the College Assistance Migrant Program

* In 1997 - $3,100,000 added by the Senate for the National Writing Project.

* In 1997 - $8,200,000 for a new classroom building at the Rowley Secret Service Training Center in Beltsville, Maryland, which is the district of House Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations subcommittee member Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and the state of Senate appropriator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.).

* In 1994 - $221,000 for lowbush blueberry research at the University of Maine in the state of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME).

* In 1998 - $150,000 added by the House for the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness.

* In 1998 - $127,000 added by the Senate for global marketing support services in the state of Senate appropriator Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.). According to testimony, the goal of this research is to identify “potential foreign markets for Arkansas products….”

* In 1998 - $32,000 added by the Senate for the Center for Rural Studies in the state of Senate appropriator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). A portion of this grant money is used for analytical reports to guide the development of Vermont retail shopping areas

* In 1998 - $500,000 added by the House in the district of House appropriator Richard Durbin (D-IL) for the construction at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Illinois, of Chalres Corneau’s house, a neighbor and friend of Abraham Lincoln.

* In 1998 - $10,912,000 added by the Senate for foreign language assistance.

* In 1994 - $200,000 for locoweed research at New Mexico State University in the state of House appropriator Joe Skeen (R-NM). Since 1992, $716,000 has been appropriated, and there is no expected completion date for this research.

* In 1994 - $1,000,000 added in the Senate for the Multispecies Aquaculture Center in the state of Senate appropriator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

* In 1994 - $19,600,000 added in the House for the International Fund for Ireland. The conference report “restores language stricken by the Senate and appropriates up to $19,600,000 for the International Fund for Ireland.” In the past, this program has used American taxpayer dollars for a golf video and pony trekking centers.

* In 1993 - $19,704,000 for the International Fund for Ireland requested, according to committee sources, by House Speaker Thomas Foley (D-WA).

* In 1993 - $9,170,000 added in conference for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission in the district of House appropriator John Murtha (D-PA)

* In 1992 - $2,000,000 added in conference by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) for a New York Bight Center for undersea research.

* No project is more synonymous with waste and fraud than the “Big Dig”, the not-so-affectionate nickname given to the rerouting of Boston’s chief highway (Interstate 93) into a 3.5 mile tunnel beneath the city. Originally estimated to cost $2.5 billion in 1985, the project devolved into the most expensive highway project in U.S. history, costing some $14.6 billion in state and federal tax dollars by 2006. Countless contractor changes and environmental obstacles later, Boston.com lamented in 2008 that the Big Dig’s crushing debt had “engulfed the state”, ballooning to $22 billion that will not be paid off in full until 2038 – at the earliest. This assumes no more hurdles for a project whose oversights have already killed a motorist and led a Massachusetts attorney general to demand $100 million in refunds to taxpayers as a result of “shoddy work.” (This last comment might qualify as the understatement of the century.)

* Many assume the government has extremely strict procedures for tracking the money entrusted to it by taxpayers. Believers in this view received a rude awakening in 2003, however, when it was reported that nearly $25 billion in government spending was totally unaccounted for. In typical fashion the mysterious disappearance of this mind-blowing sum was not publicly addressed. Rather, the only apparent record of the incident appears to be buried deep within the Treasury Department’s Financial Report of the United States Government of 2003, in a tiny section innocently entitled “Unreconciled Transactions Affecting the Change in Net Position.” (Perhaps more outrage would have ensued if the section were more bluntly titled “Spending Unaccounted For.”) Put in perspective, $25 billion is enough to fund the Department of Justice for a full calendar year.

* Like so many grand and visionary government projects, “Railhead” – an online terrorist database meant to disseminate information to counter terrorism analysts – was done in by cost overruns and mismanagement. Recalling comments from Representative Brad Miller, chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee’s Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, CNet.com notes “”Potentially hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted, delivery schedules have slipped, contractor employees have been laid off.” Miller further stated that the net result was a database that “had been crippled by technical flaws”, replaced by “a new system that if actually deployed will leave our country more vulnerable than the existing yet flawed system in operation today.” While technical flaws have received the brunt of the blame for Railhead’s demise, contractor fraud played no small part. ZD Net, for example, reports that $500 million originally earmarked for Railhead actually went toward renovating one of Boeing’s own buildings! http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10023848-38.html

* One all too common consequence of spending other people’s money is failure to think ahead. A telling example can be found in San Jose, whose unified school district approved the purchase of a $725,000 pizza machine it claimed would “churn out 800 pizzas a day to sell on various campuses in the district.” In reality, the machine reportedly produced only 2,000 pizzas in two years due to frequent breakdowns, which works out to roughly $360 per pizza. (Caltax jokes that they hope the kids “got extra cheese and generous toppings.) What’s worse, the San Jose school district eventually took pizza off its menus completely when it realized there weren’t enough trucks to deliver pizza to different campuses, all of which had the same rigidly enforced lunch time. The machine is mostly retired at present, trotted out only on Fridays at various elementary schools for “pizza day.”

* The federal government cannot account for $24.5 billion spent in 2003. * A White House review of just a sample of the federal budget identified $90 billion spent on programs deemed that were either ineffective, marginally adequate, or operating under a flawed purpose or design. * The federal government spends $23 billion annually on special interest pork projects such as grants to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or funds to combat teenage "goth" culture in Blue Springs, Missouri. * Washington spends tens of billions of dollars on failed and outdated programs such as the Rural Utilities Service, U.S. Geological Survey and Economic Development Association.

* The federal government made $20 billion in overpayments in 2001. * The Department of Housing and Urban Development's $3.3 billion in overpayments in 2001 accounted for over 10 percent of the department's total budget. * Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 for admission to entertainment events, $48,250 for gambling, $69,300 for cruises, and $73,950 for exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.

* The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses, and 40% of this goes to Fortune 500 companies. * The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets, and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable. * The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually to not farm their land. * Massive farm subsidies also go to several members of Congress, and celebrity "hobby farmers" such as David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, Scottie Pippen, and former Enron CEO Ken Lay. * The Medicare program pays as much as eight times the cost that other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies. * Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education. * The Army Corps of Engineers has been accused of illegally manipulating data to justify expensive but unnecessary public works projects. * Food stamp overpayments cost $600 million annually. * School lunch program abuse costs $120 million annually. * Veterans' program overpayments cost $800 million annually. * Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) overpayments cost $9 billion annually. * Better tracking of student loan recipients would save $1 billion annually. *Preventing states from using accounting tricks to secure additional Medicaid funds would save several billion dollars annually. * Medicare contractors owe the federal government $7 billion.

GAO REDUNDANCY REPORT

-- Fifty-six programs across 20 agencies dealing with financial literacy.

-- More than 2,100 data centers -- up from 432 a little more than a decade ago -- across 24 federal agencies. GAO estimated the government could save up to $200 billion over the next decade by consolidating them.

-- Twenty programs across seven agencies dealing with homelessness. The report found $2.9 billion spent on the programs in 2009. "Congress is often to blame" for fragmentation, GAO wrote in this section, explaining that the duplicative programs in multiple agencies cause access problems for potential participants.

-- Eighty-two "distinct" teacher-quality programs across 10 agencies. Many of them have "duplicate sub-goals," GAO said. Nine of them address teacher quality in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

-- Fifteen agencies administering 30 food-related laws. "Some of the oversight doesn't make any sense," the report stated bluntly.

-- Eighty economic development programs.

In some cases, the programs in question struggled to account for what they did. Take, for instance, domestic food assistance initiatives. According to GAO, 18 such programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services -- with GAO estimating $62.5 billion spent on them.

But "little is known about the effectiveness" of 11 of those programs, the report states.

Similarly, of the 47 job-training programs run out of the federal government, only five could provide an "impact study" since 2004 looking at "outcomes." About half of them provided no performance review at all since 2004.

Here are some of the links I found.

http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=9335&pos...

http://politicalalchemist.com/index.php?topic=647.0

http://www.republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/blog?ID=652f4d52-...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/01/government-waste-numbers...

http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-wat...

http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-wat...

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110824005417/en/Obama-Regul...

http://factreal.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/earmark-obama-its-raining-...

http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&am...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rep2/govt-corruption-incompetence-idiocy...

http://marathonpundit.blogspot.com/2010/02/stimulus-waste-15-notabl...

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&Fil...

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/most-outrageous-government...

This one is from Donald Berwick, former CMS Director, about WFA in Medicare and Medicaid. This should outrage even the most Liberal/Progressive. But it won't. The first and 12th paragraphs are the crime we are dealing with. Now with the government controlling 1/6th of our economy  (AKA Health Care) you can guarantee the amount of WFA will spiral even higher. Please pay particular attention to paragraphs 1 and 12. Does anyone in their right mind believe that Obamacare will improve this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/health/policy/parting-shot-at-was...

I'd like you to look at number 4, way up at the top of my list. It says:

Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them–costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually–fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve. (emphasis mine)

This should make your blood boil! Not only does it expose the absolute need for government reform, it also proves the hypocrisy. Here we have a "government report" about the incompetence of the government. How much more proof does our government need to understand it is too big and unsustainable? Many of you may remember when President Reagan created the Grace Commission. Here is a synopsis.

In 1984 Reagan created a special commission called the "Private Sector Survey on Cost Control”, better known as the “Grace Commission”. The OMB didn't even know how many Federal programs existed. As it turns out 963 different social programs existed and you could be enrolled in 17 of them at the same time even if you didn't need or qualify for them. 161 private sector executives volunteered their time in 36 task-forces. It was funded by $75 million dollars of private funds. Three years later the commission reported they found nearly 2,500 cost-cutting and revenue generating recommendations that could save the government almost $425 BILLION Dollars in the first 3 years. With complete incorporation the plan was reported to be able to save nearly $2 TRILLION Dollars by 1999. Over 90% of the recommendations were ignored by Congress.

This is the problem with our government. They know there are problems but they're too cowardly to fix them because they will be demonized and fear they will lose votes.

Actually, a government bureau is the closest thing we'll see to eternal life on this earth. ~ Ronald Reagan

No more prophetic statement can be made about our government.