You know, that would be a great project for every willing newspaper and TV station- a weekly program detailing where the public’s money is going, all over the USA.
I don’t know that anyone really pays attention to how money is REALLY being spent. I worked in county government 30 plus years ago and we had an annual budget of several million dollars. It was disgraceful what went on toward the end of each budget year as departments rushed to spend the ‘leftover’ money rather than have to give it back or have their budgets reduced by that much in subsequent years. Money was salted all over the place and then ‘transferred’ as unexpected ‘needs’ would arise during the year.
What’s needed is some way to make the lawmakers feel more like the money they are spending is coming from their pockets.