By Susan Duclos
The NCRR has created a website which identifies wasteful government spending and how much is spent on each item. The total so far is $18,224,377,097. Readers can sign also sign up for updates on wasteful government spending.
List of identified waste as of Thursday, March 28, 2013, below:
WASTE: Identity thieves steal billions from IRS
- $3,900,000,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded Star Wars party
- $365
WASTE: New NASA visitor center built next door to old NASA visitor center
- $12,400,000
WASTE: Science dollars wasted on Antarctica projects
- $20,500,000
WASTE: Professional sports tax loopholes
- $91,000,000
WASTE: Luxurious bus shelters
- $388,000
WASTE: Circus classes
- $20,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded online lawyer training
- $500,000
WASTE: Toy exhibit
- $150,000
WASTE: National Science Foundation “Prom Week” video game
- $516,000
WASTE: Book club funding goes to ghost tours, fishing lessons, and movie screenings
- $1,000,000
WASTE: Abandoned homes in New Orleans receive federal funds
- $21,600,000
WASTE: Cartoon school receives $225,000
- $225,000
WASTE: Vineyard grape-growing subsidies
- $1,500,000
WASTE: Video game festival
- $50,000
WASTE: Study on Idaho firearm industry
- $24,877
WASTE: Video game based on author Henry David Thoreau’s writings
- $40,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded house renovations lose money
- $18,410
WASTE: Government-backed business loan losses
- $3,400,000
WASTE: Abuse of college tax credits
- $3,200,000,000
WASTE: USDA caviar promotion
- $300,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-subsidized cupcakes
- $2,000,000
WASTE: Black liquor tax loophole
- $268,000,000
WASTE: Study on heavy drinking in thirties linked to immaturity
- $548,731
WASTE: Department of Energy award for App that already exists
- $100,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded study finds golfers are better when they envision a larger hole
- $350,000
WASTE: Failed healthy food initiative
- $32,000,000
WASTE: Television rerun study
- $666,905
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded comedy group tours India
- $100,000
WASTE: Job contractors pay highest bidder
- $4,600,000
WASTE: Government overpays for products and services
- $1,000,000,000
WASTE: College anti-trash poster contest
- $67,926
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded tour boat
- $3,300,000
WASTE: Alaskan sightseeing trains
- $38,800,000
WASTE: Video game study on memory loss
- $1,200,000
WASTE: Talking urinal cakes
- $10,000
WASTE: Taxpayer dollars fail to reform struggling schools
- $7,300,000
WASTE: Russian weapons institutes recruiting new scientists with U.S. taxpayer funds
- $15,000,000
WASTE: Speed reading faces
- $30,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded phone app
- $1,000,000
WASTE: Highway funds pay for sculpture garden
- $145,000
WASTE: Powerful internet routers installed in tiny rural libraries and schools
- $24,000,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded smartphone research
- $1,300,000
WASTE: Alabama Watermelon Queen Tour
- $25,000
WASTE: Taxpayers fund graffiti mural to combat obesity
- $13,000
WASTE: Unused airport in Oklahoma
- $450,000
WASTE: Corporate welfare for world’s largest snack food maker
- $1,300,000
WASTE: Duplicate magazine preservation
- $270,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded potato chips
- $49,990
WASTE: Improper food stamp payments
- $4,500,000,000
WASTE: Robot Squirrels
- $325,000
WASTE: Philosophy booth and “academic” happiness course
- $24,995
WASTE: Fruit and veggies YouTube video contest
- $106,000
WASTE: Faulty FEMA calculations lead to unnecessary building replacement
- $75,400,000
WASTE: Contracts for trophies and typewriters
- $24,000,000
WASTE: Pentagon weapons funds buy beef jerky
- $700,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded yacht engines
- $489,000
WASTE: Bizarre and wasteful “academic” summer studies
- $498,000
WASTE: Missile Defense Agency’s research problems
- $1,000,000,000
WASTE: California towns sell federal grants to neighbors
- $206,426
WASTE: Arcade-style floor mats for gym class
- $90,750
WASTE: Unconstitutional courthouse cameras
- $500,000
WASTE: Failed Iraqi police training program
- $400,000,000
WASTE: Book vending machine
- $35,000
WASTE: Motorsports museum
- $300,000
WASTE: Celebrity chefs and healthy food vending machines
- $612,808
WASTE: Medicaid audit program costs more than it saves
- $30,000,000
WASTE: Another bridge to nowhere
- $520,000
WASTE: Taxpayer dollars go to a brewery
- $750,970
WASTE: Government-subsidized cell phones
- $1,500,000,000
WASTE: 100 Year Starship Initiative
- $300,000
WASTE: Navy picks two companies to build new ships increasing costs by $148 million
- $148,000,000
WASTE: Overseas vacations for athletes
- $5,500,000
WASTE: Climate change musical
- $697,177
WASTE: Unused and outdated NASA database
- $771,000
WASTE: Lego city
- $3,700
WASTE: Phantom and unused grant account fees
- $2,000,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded pet shampoo and toothpaste
- $505,000
WASTE: Old-fashioned trolley car
- $35,600,000
WASTE: Sidewalks to nowhere
- $1,100,000
WASTE: Student field trip to watch the movie Red Tails
- $57,000
WASTE: Unnecessary courthouse design
- $322,000,000
WASTE: Mars Menu
- $947,000
WASTE: Electric vehicle tax credit
- $74,000,000
WASTE: Medicaid payments to tax evaders
- $330,000,000
WASTE: Dancing robots as iPhone disc jockeys
- $547,430
WASTE: Moroccan pottery classes
- $27,000,000
WASTE: Smokey Bear balloons
- $49,447
WASTE: Video game controller design
- $1,500,000
WASTE: Postal Service overprints commemorative stamps
- $2,000,000
WASTE: Taxpayer-funded booze
- $99,000
WASTE: Old-fashioned x-rays for prisoners
- $1,300,000
WASTE: Free (taxpayer-funded) bus rides for Super Bowl attendees
- $142,419
WASTE: NASA video games and entertainment programs
- $1,600,000
WASTE: Penny production
- $70,000,000
WASTE: Fruit fly sexual attractiveness study
- $939,771
WASTE: Rubber tire subsidy to billion-dollar tire company
- $6,900,000
WASTE: Paying for veterans’ health care twice
- $1,000,000,000