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.• Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.
• Washington will spend $615,175 on an archive honoring the Grateful Dead.
• Each month, taxpayers provide $40,000 worth of office space, cell phones, staff, and an SUV for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who currently works as a lobbyist for private corporations and foreign governments.
• More than $326 million in pork will go to the 1.3 million citizens of Hawaii—a per capita rate of $251.78. On the other hand, the 544,270 fine people of Wyoming will receive only $12.28 per person. Take a guess which state has a senator who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and which state has nary a member on the committee.
• The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.
• 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.
• 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.
• The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused airline tickets and never bothered collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.
Perry, Rick; Newt Gingrich (2010-11-15). Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington (pp. 65-66). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Windows Edition.
And just wait 'till you read the part where he talks about the spending of the Republicans in the middle of last decade!
You may be interested in this article on Perry trying to return the stimulus money but the Democrats in Texas wanting to block that move.....DAMN!
“From the center of a Houston hardware store, Gov. Rick Perry ignited a debate about Texas job cuts, business taxes and President Barack Obama’s so-called economic stimulus program Thursday by rejecting the federal government’s offer of $555 million in aid to the unemployed.
The action now moves to the Legislature, which can bypass Perry and take the offer as long as it changes state laws and blocks Republican Perry’s potential veto. Democratic lawmakers said Thursday they will try.”
Read more at http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Perry-No-thanks-on-555-million-in-U-S-jobless-1537261.php
“A real WTF moment, at the same time we have spent almost a trillion on the F 35; Not ready for prime time Perry, were would you have gotten the frigging money, we are broke. How about Texas giving the stimulus back so we can buy more toys. Damn!!!!!”
Nobody seems to bother to ask why new planes cost so much. Why should an F-22 cost 200-400 million a copy (depending on how you count the beans) even if the capabilities are advanced?
Why do we not have any much less costly alternatives? (answer: they might actually cost less and be effective)
It is the greed of the Military Industrial Complex that makes them so expensive. They don’t really care about producing advanced aircraft for the defense of America - they care about getting bigger budgets - that’s it.
The F22 is so expensive because of government incompetence and MIC greed. We can’t afford this incompetence and greed any more.