From super soldiers to stay-at-home feds, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) identified 100 programs that have generated almost $30 billion in wasteful spending by the f...
With Congress winding down for the holidays and budget talks wrapping up, it’s time to look back at the good, the bad and the wasteful for 2013.
On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) released Wastebook 2013, his annual survey of wasteful spending by the federal government.
“While the President and his cabinet issued dire warnings about the cataclysmic impacts of sequestration, taxpayers were not alerted to all of the waste being spared from the budget axe,” Coburn wrote.
This year, Coburn identified 100 projects that cost taxpayers nearly $30 billion. Among Coburn’s top offenders were:
“Any federal employee collecting an annual salary of $100,000 or more should be performing essential work or considered exempt from furlough during a government shutdown,” Coburn wrote. “Likewise, Congress which is expected to perform essential work should not be paid when it fails to pass an annual budget as required by law. This is especially important since many of the same employees furloughed during the government shutdown may end up being furloughed again-this time without pay-in a few months as a result of sequestration if Congress fails to do its job passing a budget.”
In 2013, as part of a promotional campaign, the Army National Guard spent $10 million on a “Soldier of Steel” tie-in with the Superman movie, “Man of Steel.”
“This money could have been better spent on the real life supermen and superwomen in the Army National Guard who are courageously risking all in the fight for truth, justice, and the American way,” he wrote.
“NEH may love to waste money on this project, but taxpayers are likely to feel jilted subsidizing the promotion of a billion dollar industry that generated over $1.4 billion in 2012,” Coburn wrote.
“The right to filibuster nominations has largely been dismantled without the backing of public opinion and both the Majority Leader and President have left open the possibility of eliminating the legislative filibuster in the future,” Coburn wrote.
“Obamacare is perhaps the biggest marketing flop since Coca-Cola introduced the world to ‘New Coke’ in 1985,” he said
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