I realize that I might be getting a tad�redundant by reporting all these�aggravating�ways that the government is wasting our hard earned money, but I can’t get enough of the stupidity of some of these “investments.” Story via endoftheamericandream.com.�
Photo Via theeconomiccollapseblog.com
#1�The U.S. government is spending�$750,000�on a new soccer field for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.
#2�The Obama administration plans to spend between�16 and 20 million dollars�helping students from Indonesia get master’s degrees.
#3�If you can believe it, the U.S. government has spent�$175,587�”to determine if cocaine makes Japanese quail engage in sexually risky behavior”.
#4�The U.S. government spent�$200,000�on “a tattoo removal program” in Mission Hills, California.
#5�The federal government has shelled out�$3 million�to researchers at the University of California at Irvine to fund their research on video games such as World of Warcraft.� Wouldn’t we all love to have a “research job” like that?
#6�The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend�$500 million�on a program that will, among other things, seek to solve the problem of 5-year-old children that “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom.
#7�Fannie Mae is about to ask the federal government for another�$4.6 billion bailout, and it will almost certainly get it.
#8�The federal government once spent�30 million dollars�on a program that was designed to help Pakistani farmers produce more mangos.
#9�The U.S. Department of Agriculture once gave researchers at the University of New Hampshire�$700,000�to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.
#10�According�to USA Today, 13 different government agencies “fund 209 different science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programs � and 173 of those programs overlap with at least one other program.”
#11�A total of�$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.
#12�China lends us more money than any other foreign nation, but that didn’t stop our government from spending�17.8 million dollars�on social and environmental programs for China.
#13�The U.S. government once spent�2.6 million dollars�to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly.
#14�One professor at Stanford University was given�$239,100�to study how Americans use the Internet to find love.
#15�The U.S. Postal Service spent�$13,500�on a single dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.
#16�The National Science Foundation once spent�$216,000�to study whether or not politicians “gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions”.
#17�A total of�$1.8 million�was spent on a “museum of neon signs” in Las Vegas, Nevada.
#18�The federal government spends�25 billion dollars�a year maintaining federal buildings that are either unused or totally vacant.
#19�U.S. farmers are given a total of�$2 billion�each year for not farming their land.
#20�The U.S. government handed one Tennessee library�$5,000�for the purpose of hosting a series of video game parties.
#21�A few years ago the government spent�$123,050�on a Mother’s Day Shrine in Grafton, West Virginia.� It turns out that Grafton only has a population of a little more than 5,000 people.
#22�One professor at Dartmouth University was given�$137,530�to create a “recession-themed” video game entitled “Layoff”.
#23�According to�the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. military 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”.
#24�The U.S. Department of Agriculture once shelled out�$30,000�to a group of farmers to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight “haycations”.
#25�The National Institutes of Health paid researchers�$400,000�to find out why gay men in Argentina engage in risky sexual behavior when they are drunk.
#26�The National Institutes of Health also once spent�$442,340�to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.
#27�The National Institutes of Health loves to spend our tax money on really bizarre things.� The NIH once spent�$800,000�in “stimulus funds” to study the impact of a “genital-washing program” on men in South Africa.
#28�According to the Washington Post,�1,271�different government organizations work on government programs related to counterterrorism and homeland security.
#29�The U.S. government spent�$100,000�on a “Celebrity Chef Fruit Promotion Road Show in Indonesia”.
#30�The feds once gave Alaska Airlines�$500,000�”to paint a Chinook salmon” on the side of a Boeing 737.
How in the world can our government be so foolish?
Anyone that claims that there is not a lot of stuff that can be cut out of the federal budget is lying to you.