Waste!

    It seems like in this country and maybe it’s true in others too that the more the “government for the people” attempts to provide for the needs of its people everything gets worse!  I have never seen so much confusion and discontent within an organization than I have seen within the Senate and Congress of the United States within the last few years.

    Imagine, if you will, if you were trying to run your personal company the way the “officials” try to run the government!  You would never get anything done.  If your company was running out of money (and you can’t just print more or “increase” the ceiling on your debt limit like the government does) and you had only 21 days to get a “fix” in place:  Would you decide THAT was the time to go home and take a two week vacation from your job?  I don’t think so!  You would probably be up at night, staying late and even coming in on the week-ends to get this matter corrected.  But the government can decide to do that, regardless of the fact that some departments may shut down and some may be forced to work “without pay” until the government “leaders” return and get the situation corrected.  For some reason, I think that if the Senators and Congressmen were told:  “This situation WILL be concluded by THIS date OR YOUR pay AND benefits would cease until it gets corrected.”  I think you would get a lot more work done in a faster pace than you could imagine!

     It’s estimated that the government wastes some $2 BILLION per day of taxpayers’ money.  But it always seems when truly needed programs are brought before them they cannot find the available funds to get the program operational.  What are some of these wastes?

     According to the Heritage Foundation the government spends some $8 BILLION in operating costs in duplicate programs and government departments.

     The Global Hawk, a drone, costs $200 MILLION when a $40 MILLION U2 does a better job taking pictures and its 50 years old!

     Look at the areas of criminal, corruption, and fraud!  Medicare (according to an FBI report) has $57 BILLION in estimated fraudulent activities in the system ANNUALLY!  And a commission on Wartime Contracting states that corruption by defense contractors may be as high as $60 BILLION in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And it probably goes on in other areas of government operations also.

    These are GENERAL waste figures that have been documented in various reports and studies.  However, consider some specific “projects” that the government has decided needed a portion of the taxpayer’s money.

     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 14 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.

#9 $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a “museum of neon signs” in Las Vegas, Nevada.

#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.

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

#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.

     With ALL these crazy “projects” which are often they are done ONLY for the sake of a Congressman or Senator “making points” with someone or some organization.  However, we have to admit that much of the government “waste” on overspending for so-called “operating expenses” is due to the fact that American citizens are “shooting themselves in the foot” by creating or scamming the government out of money.  Where do we think the money comes from that the government spends?  It comes from US!  We have to pay all those bills for services and goods that the government approves.  But we are funny that way.  When we “think” it’s NOT OUR MONEY we’re more liberal with our spending.  But again --- we’re only human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Consider laughing more.  It doesn't cost you a thing

and others may decide to join you.!