The Craziest Things The U.S. Government Is Spending Money On.......

[Intense]

At a time when the U.S. national debt is closing in on 14 trillion dollars, government waste just seems more out of control than ever. The following are 20 of the craziest things that the U.S. government is spending money on....

#1 A total of $3 million has been granted to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so that they can play video games such as World of Warcraft. The goal of this "video game research" is reportedly to study how "emerging forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life can help organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace."

#2 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.

#3 $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.

#4 A professor at Stanford University received $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love. So far one of the key findings of this "research" is that the Internet is a safer and more discreet way to find same-sex partners.

#5 The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians "gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions."

#6 The National Institutes of Health spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.

#7 Approximately $1 million of U.S. taxpayer money was used to create poetry for the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Chicago zoos. The goal of the "poetry" is to help raise awareness on environmental issues.

#8 The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use. This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.

#9 $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a "museum of neon signs" in Las Vegas, Nevada.

#10 $35 million was reportedly paid out by Medicare to 118 "phantom" medical clinics that never even existed. Apparently these "phantom" medical clinics were established by a network of criminal gangs as a way to defraud the U.S. government.

#11 The Conservation Commission of Monkton, Vermont got $150,000 from the federal government to construct a "critter crossing". Thanks to U.S. government money, the lives of "thousands" of migrating salamanders are now being saved.

#12 In California, one park received $440,000 in federal funds to perform "green energy upgrades" on a building that has not been used for a decade.

#13 $440,955 was spent this past year on an office for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he rarely even visits.

#14 One Tennessee library was given $5,000 in federal funds to host a series of video game parties.

#15 The U.S. Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on a television commercial during the Super Bowl that was so poorly produced that virtually nobody understood what is was trying to say.

#16 A professor at Dartmouth University received $137,530 to create a "recession-themed" video game entitled "Layoff".

#17 The National Science Foundation gave the Minnesota Zoo over $600,000 so that they could develop an online video game called "Wolfquest".

#18 A pizzeria in Iowa was given $60,000 to renovate the pizzeria's facade and give it a more "inviting feel".

#19 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave one enterprising group of farmers $30,000 to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight "haycations". This one sounds like something that Dwight Schrute would have dreamed up.

#20 Almost unbelievably, the National Institutes of Health was given $800,000 in "stimulus funds" to study the impact of a "genital-washing program" on men in South Africa.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/government-waste-20-of-the-craziest-things-that-the-u-s-government-is-spending-money-on

:laugh: Discuss? :slap:

[cadet]

I find it severely unfair that one college gets paid to play WoW.

Equal rights! We want free WoW here too!!! :laugh:

(Can you imagine how fast we'd go down the shitter if they paid every college for that?)

[SassyLady]

$750,000 for a soccer field for Gitmo detainees?


http://theweek.com/article/index/225072/do-gitmo-detainees-deserve-a-750000-soccer-field


and I would say about 50% of whatever the NIH spends is crazy.

[Intense]

We can always print more money, right? :laugh:

[sundaydriver]

How many on the list are from "pork barrel spending" from the constituents representatives snuck into passing bills?

[Shadow]

Just the tip of the "fraud" Iceberg too no doubt.

#10 $35 million was reportedly paid out by Medicare to 118 "phantom" medical clinics that never even existed. Apparently these "phantom" medical clinics were established by a network of criminal gangs as a way to defraud the U.S. government.

[PostmodernProphet]

by the way, this list is from 2010.....

[LuvRPgrl]

The san diego police dept and sheriffs, recd a federal grant to determine how good they are at harrasing innocent people, violating the Constitution;
writing bogus tickets and flat out extorting money from the general public. Oh, and how to get away with lying in court, perjury

[Intense]

Federal Contractor Pensions Protected at Taxpayers’ Expense
December 20, 2011
by: Erica Gordon

Wastewatcher

Taxpayers may be surprised to learn that they are currently bankrolling the retirement plans of profitable, private sector companies. With a record-breaking national debt, a sinking economy, and millions of Americans facing losses to their own retirement accounts, taxpayers should not be on the hook for tens of billions of dollars for private contractor pensions and benefits.

In April 2011, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report recommending that the Department of Energy (DOE) comprehensively review how it manages contractor postretirement benefit costs. Under federal accounting standards, the government is responsible for paying certain costs of these benefits, which include pensions and healthcare. The GAO report noted that “DOE’s costs for reimbursing contractor pension and other postretirement benefits have grown since 2000 and are projected to increase in coming years.” Over the past 10 years, DOE’s annual costs have ranged from $43 million in 2001 to $750 million in 2009. They have increased by an average of 8 percent annually and should increase by 9 percent annually over the next five years.

http://www.cagw.org/newsroom/waste-watcher/2012/january/federal-contractor-pensions.html

I'll try to focus on more current issues. ;)

[Intense]

Connect America Fund: Continuing the Universal Service Fee with No End in Sight
December 20, 2011
by: Deborah Collier

Wastewatcher

On November 18, 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued its much-anticipated 759-page proposed rulemaking for the Connect America Fund (CAF), which sets out to reform the Universal Service Fund (USF) and the Intercarrier Compensation (ICC) programs. Public comments on certain sections of the rulemaking are due by January 18, 2012, and on other sections by February 17, 2012.

The FCC initiated its reform proceedings on February 8, 2011. Using the administration’s National Broadband Plan as guidance, the commission voted on October 27, 2011 to approve plans to merge the USF and ICC into the CAF. The intent is to provide a response to the evolution and modernization of digital technology, as well as to address issues of waste within both the USF and ICC programs. According to the FCC, there are approximately 18 million Americans living in underserved areas who, under the new program, will receive broadband services in the next 10 years.

With many companies hiring job applicants online and schools relying more frequently on web-based textbooks, access to the Internet is critical to the nation’s economy, and according to the FCC’s website, “Broadband has gone from being a luxury to a necessity for full participation in our economy and society – for all Americans.” That begins to turn broadband into a new “entitlement” program at the taxpayers’ expense.

The original USF program defined universal service as telephone services for rural and underserved areas of the country, where the cost of providing these services was too high for communications companies to bear alone. In expanding the definition of universal service to include the provision of broadband services in February 2011, the FCC stated that Section 254(c) (1) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 defines universal service as “evolving.” Through the November 28, 2011 order and report, the FCC has proposed a new principle that adopts “support for advanced services” as a universal service, which will result in the continuation of the USF fee or some other similar hidden tax on consumers in perpetuity.

The federal USF fee collects approximately $7.7 billion annually, which is used to provide infrastructure for communications (or phone) services for low-income residents in areas that are considered underserved. The money is distributed through the Universal Service Administrative Company through four methods: high-cost support, low-income support, rural health care support, and schools and libraries support. Peculiarities exist within the distribution of funds, which has helped lead to wasteful spending.

Although 96.2 percent of Americans have the ability to access phone service, funding to companies that support the USF high-cost component has grown from $2.6 billion in 2001 to a projected $4.5 billion in 2011. This subsidy exists despite the fact that wireless service could more efficiently provide service. According to FCC Chairman Genachowski’s remarks on October 6, 2011, the USF is wasteful and inefficient, paying some companies almost $2,000 a month for a single home phone line.

http://www.cagw.org/newsroom/waste-watcher/2012/january/connect-america-fund.html

Wonder why those charges keep going up, while the quality of service goes down?