Wastebook—Read It and Weep

Better yet, read it and wake up.

Senator Tom Coburn, unfortunately leaving the Senate at the end of the year, wants you to know how taxpayer money is being spent in Washington. As Mr. Coburn points out, we shouldn’t worry that the current Congress is on track for being the least productive in 60 years. Our real concern should be what Washington is doing.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) claims that due to stagnant spending, no vaccine for Ebola has been developed. But there is enough money for Swedish massages for rabbits and a study on how much women love their dogs.

NASA no longer has the ability to send astronauts to the moon, but it pays Russia $70 million per passenger for a round-trip fare to the international space station. To do what? Study “design and creation of better golf clubs” to the tune of $1.5 million per hour.

The National Science Foundation taught monkeys how to gamble and lions how to use a treadmill.

The Pentagon paid $1 billion to destroy $16 billion worth of ammo. That’s enough to cover a full year’s salary for over 54,000 Army privates.

The IRS handed over $4 billion to identity thieves after failing to recognize bogus tax returns. This happened while the IRS was politically targeting Tea Party groups with overzealous scrutiny.

Senator Coburn’s Wastebook shows the 100 outrageous ways Washington has spent your money over the last year. As Mr. Coburn writes, “Only someone with too much of someone else’s money and not enough accountability for how it was being spent could come up with these projects.”

Read more here from The Federalist about Wastebook 2014 for an infuriating look at Washington at its worst.

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Debbie Young

Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, and practicing yoga.