Cato’s Chris Edwards offers up a way to showcase government waste.
About 18 million tourists visit D.C. each year. They view the grand government buildings, and they see the monuments to the great political leaders. They learn about the government’s successes in places such as the Air and Space Museum, and they read the pro-government history in places such as the Capitol Visitor Center. They also might notice the man-and-horse statue outside the FTC, which signifies the government’s heroic battle to strangle trade.
We need more balance in the D.C. tourist experience. Major failures are a fundamental part of the government’s story, but most of the boondoggles and scandals get forgotten. How many people remember the appalling scandals at HUD during the 1980s? Or the $2 billion down the drain on the Superconducting Supercollider, or the $10 billion down the drain on the Yucca Mountain waste site?
I envision a museum near the Smithsonian that would give tourists a reality-based perspective on the government. It could display a scale model of the NASA rocket facility with photos of the politician responsible, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). It could explore failures in history, such as a diorama of a boondoggle Indian trading post from the 1790s. It could have a video screening room showing disgraceful moments caught on tape, such as the Abscam sting of the late 1970s. So if there is a philanthropist out there who wants to educate Americans on the government’s real track record, this is an idea to consider.
