No Spin Zone

[Arrow]

To borrow a phrase...we report..you decide...I keep hearing how we can't afford to take care of our Vets. And while I agree that there are vets that are milkin' the system for all it is worth just because they can. SHAME ON THEM. I believe we can and should do everything we can for those that are suffering from service connected disabilities. They should have the best of everything this country has to offer. All it would take is getting our priorities straight in this country. The following is just the tip of the iceberg of the waste that has gone in this country and continues to this day. When I hear congress handin' out their bullshit stories about how we just can't afford to take care of our vets ie concurrent receipt etc all I have to say is "Cry Me a River" and fly them the international sign of contempt.

GOLDEN FLEECE AWARDS 1975-1988

DATE
RECIPIENT
DESCRIPTION

March 1975
National Science Foundation
For squandering $84,000 to try to find out why people fall in love.

April 1975
National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Office of Naval Research
For spending over $500,000 in the last seven years to determine under what conditions rats, monkeys, and humans bite and clench their jaws. The results of the test found that anger, stopping smoking, and loud noises produce jaw clenching in humans.

May 1975
Selective Service System and Army Corps of Engineers
For a $98,029 contract awarded to Kenneth Coffey to study the all-volunteer army concept in foreign countries two years after the all-volunteer army had already been put into effect in the U.S.

June 1975
U.S. Congress
For living high off the hog while much of the rest of the country is suffering economic disaster.

July 1975
Bureau of Land Management
For requiring useless paperwork on a contract that resulted in a $4,000 piece of equipment costing over $15,000.

August 1975
Federal Aviation Administration
For a $57,800 study of the body measurements of airline stewardess trainees.

September 1975
Department of the Navy
For using 64 planes to fly 1334 officers to the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas for a reunion of private organization during the height of the energy crisis.

October 1975
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
For spending millions of dollars to find out if drunk fish are more aggressive than sober fish, if young rats are more likely than adult rats to drink booze in order to reduce anxiety, and if rats can be systematically turned into alcoholics.

November 1975
Frank Zarb, Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration
For spending $25,000 and using almost 19,000 gallons of fuel in ten months to fly around the country in chartered aircraft urging businessmen and civic groups to economize on energy resources.

December 1975
The White House
For its efforts to add to its empire through increased funds for consultants, contingencies, travel and high level personnel while calling for austerity from the rest of the government.

Fleece of the Year 1975
Department of the Air Force
For operating a $66 million fleet of 23 plush jets used solely to transport top government officials at a cost to the taxpayers of over $6 million a year.

January 1976
National Endowment for the Humanities
For spending at least $750,000 this year on grants to doctors and others to attend vacation-like, month long seminars.

February 1976
Department of the Navy
For turning an expected $15,000 in repairs on Vice President Rockefeller?s temporary home into $537,000 in total expenditures.

March 1976
National Science Foundation
For a grant to study ?Environmental Determinants of Human Aggression.? (Specifically, aggression of drivers caught in traffic jams).

April 1976
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
For requesting $2.8 million to construct an addition to the Lunar Laboratory to house 100 pounds of moon rocks.

May 1976
Federal Aviation Administration
For spending $417,000 for 95 meteorological instruments which make rain predictions from indoors.

June 1976
National Center for Health Services
For cost overruns of up to five times the original amount on over $20 million worth of grants and demonstration contracts.

July 1976
National Science Foundation?s Research Applied to National Need (RANN)
For awarding a $397,000 contract to study consumer legislation and services to a principal investigator and research center which were already both biased in favor of credit.

August 1976
General Services Administration
For spending over $1 million for 15 statues and murals at federal buildings.

September 1976
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
For a $140,000 contracting award for a 6,000 word article and book history of the Viking Mars Landing project.

October 1976
Department of Housing and Urban Development
For a $245,000 study of new towns.

November 1976
Department of the Treasury
For failing to collect $4.8 million in taxes from government big shots and for losing $17 to $18 million due to Treasury inaction.

December 1976
Army Corps of Engineers
Award of the Year for the worst record of cost overruns in the entire federal government - 47% of the Corps current projects had cost overruns of 100% or more.

January 1977
Department of Agriculture
For spending nearly $46,000 to find out how long it takes to cook breakfast.

February 1977
Law Enforcement Assistance Administration
For spending nearly $27,000 to determine why inmates want to escape from prison.

March 1977
Award of Merit to Veterans Affairs Director Max Cleland
Special award of merit to Mr. Cleland for driving himself to and from work in his own car despite the fact that he is a triple amputee. Savings to taxpayers of least $16,000 a year.

April 1977
Smithsonian Institution
For spending nearly $89,000 of public funds to produce a dictionary of Tzotzil, an unwritten language spoken by 120,000 corn-farming peasants in Southern Mexico.

May 1977
National Endowment for the Humanities
For making a $25,000 grant through the state to Arlington County, VA, to study why people are rude, cheat and lie on the local tennis courts.



June 1977
Awards of Merit to Smithsonian Institution, Farmers Home Administration, and National Science Foundation
Special Awards of Merit:

To the Smithsonian for building its Air and Space Museum on time, for less money than originally requested and with an improvement rather than a reduction in quality.

To the Farmers Home Administration which had a 32 percent increase in the weighted total of the loans and grants it made and services it offered, while reducing by 3 percent the number of persons doing the job.

To the National Science Foundation for funding work to build a man-made working gene; research in finding methods of improving nature?s way of replenishing nitrogen in the soil; and supporting pioneering research on how the brain recovers after damage.

July 1977
U.S. Postal Service
For spending over $3.4 million on a Madison Avenue ad campaign to make Americans write more letters to one another.

August 1977
Department of Transportation
For spending $225,000 on a report which forecasts transportation needs in the year 2025 under four separate science fiction ?scenarios.?

September 1977
National Endowment for the Arts
For a $6025 grant to an artist to film the throwing of crepe paper and burning gases out of a high flying airplane.

October 1977
Department of Labor
For granting a $384,948 contract to hire 101 people under a CETA program to do a door-to-door survey to count the dogs, cats, and horses in the 160,000 houses and apartments in Ventura, CA.

November 1977
Pentagon Civilian and Military brass
For misusing military aircraft on a massive scale at a cost to the taxpayers of at least $52.3 million.

December 1977
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
For a series of outrageous personal expenditures by the FDIC Chairman as revealed in a GAO report.

Fleece of the Year 1977
Department of the Treasury
For its zealous support of an end-of-the-year, end run attempt to amend the tax laws at a cost to the taxpayers of over $400 million.

January 1978
Law Enforcement Assistance Administration
For a $2 million prototype police patrol car.

February 1978
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
For proposing to spend $14 to $25 billion over the next seven years to try to find intelligent life in outer space.

March 1978
U.S. Senate
For proposing to spend over $122 million on a new Senate Office Building that would include a rooftop restaurant and the Senate?s third gym.

April 1978
National Institute for Mental Health
For funding a study of behavior and social relationships in a Peruvian brothel. This study was a part of a $97,000 grant.

May 1978
Agency for International Development
For a series of deliberate acts, bureaucratic bungles and self-serving deeds that led the agency?s own administrator John J. Gilligan, to complain that AID is ?over-age, over-rank, [and] over-paid.?

June 1978
Federal Highway Administration
For spending $222,000 to study ?Motorist Attitudes Toward Large Trucks.?

July 1978
Department of Defense
For spending over $1.2 million a year from a special fund hidden in the defense budget for gifts, parties, trips, dinners, receptions and other entertainment items.

August 1978
Department of Agriculture
For spending federal tax dollars to exercise confined pregnant pigs on a treadmill to relieve their boredom and psychological stress.

September 1978
Office of Education
For spending $40,375 in an attempt to give 35 of its ambitious or unhappy bureaucrats a new lease on their career lives.

October 1978
Environmental Protection Agency
For spending $38,174 on a two-year study to conclude that runoff from open stacks of cow manure on Vermont farms causes the pollution of water in nearby small streams and ponds.

November 1978
Department of the Interior
For spending $145,000 to install a wavemaking machine in a specially designed double-sized swimming pool in Salt Lake City, Utah.

December 1978
Office of Education
For spending $219,592 to develop a ?curriculum package? to teach college students how to watch television.

January 1979
Department of Labor
For funding a $140,000 never-completed consensus of the Samoan population of Orange County, CA.

February 1979
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
For spending $120,126 to build a low-slung, backward steering motorcycle that no one could ride.

March 1979
Department of the Air Force
For conducting a six month, $3,000 test at the Pentagon on the use of umbrellas by male personnel in uniform.

April 1979
Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Economic Development Administration
For spending $279,000 on a community center so completely unused that when it collapsed, it went unreported for days.

May 1979
Award of Merit to the U.S. Army and Dr. Percy A. Pierre
Award of merit for presenting to Congress the most readable and honest presentation on the actual needs of the U.S. Army.

June 1979
National Park Service
For a $75,000 slush fund which pays for entertainment, travel, and other expenses in excess of those appropriated for and approved under the Budget.

July 1979
Department of Commerce?s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
For spending at least $6,000 to determine if smoking marijuana has a bad effect on SCUBA divers.

August 1979
U.S. Congress
For the eruption in its staff and spending levels over the past decade.

September 1979
National Science Foundation
For spending $39,600 to study ?Himalayan Mountaineering, Social Change, and the Evolution of (the Buddhist) Religion among the Sherpas of Nepal.?

October 1979
Department of Agriculture
For awarding $90,000 for a two-year study on ?Behavioral Determinants of Vegetarians.?

November 1979
Department of the Air Force
For a last-minute $175,000 spending spree at Clark Air Force Base, the Philippines, designed to use up all available funds before they expired with the new fiscal year.

December 1979
Department of Energy
For spending $1,200 under its small grants energy saving technology program to build and test an above ground aerobic and solar-assisted composting toilet.

[Arrow]

Senator William Proxmire?s
GOLDEN FLEECE AWARDS 1980 TO 1985



January 1980
Award of Merit to the U.S. Air Force and General Slay
Award of merit for initiating a tough, no-nonsense program of reducing sole-source contracts and replacing them with good, old-fashioned American competition which could save millions annually.

February 1980
Environmental Protection Agency
For spending an extra $1-$1.2 million to preserve a Trenton, NJ sewer as a historical monument.

March 1980
National Institute for Mental Health
For funding a study on why bowlers, hockey fans, and pedestrians smile.

April 1980
U.S. Coast Guard
For wasting over a half a million dollars on a microfiche conversion project which had to be canceled when it took three years to complete only seven percent of the required work.

May 1980
Department of Education
For fattening its staff and beefing up its budget after promising that if the department were created it would include no more people and would cost no more than previously devoted to education programs.

June 1980
Department of Commerce
For spending $98,000 to hire a private public relations firm to review and evaluate the Department?s public relations efforts.

July 1980
Award of Merit to General Services Administration
Award of merit for getting the government a break on sky-rocketing air travel costs. This experimental program will save $7 million in the first six months.

August 1980
Government National Mortgage Association
For spending $6,918 to buy simulated leather binders which it sent out to savings and loan associations across the country to commemorate the issue of a total of $100 billion in mortgage-backed securities.

September 1980
Department of Labor
For funding a summer youth employment program in Arizona in which 14 junior college track athletes were paid for twice-a-day training sessions, weekly trips to compete in races, and week-long trips to train, compete and meet with other runners.

October 1980
Department of Defense
For understating by $1.5 million various excessive costs in operating public housing for high ranking generals and admirals.

November 1980
Department of Education?s Institute of Museum Services
For a $25,000 federal grant to a California zoo part of which was used to send two animal keepers half way across the country to attend a three-day elephant workshop in Tulsa, OK.

December 1980
Federal Highway Administration
For spending $241,760 to produce a computerized system that gives local travel directions to people who can?t or won?t read.

January 1981
Office of Personnel Management and the Merit System Protection Board
For spending $126,729 to send out duplicate surveys asking top federal employees how they like their jobs.

February 1981
Presidential Inaugural Committee
For spending $1.8 million to commandeer 1,120 Marines, soldiers, sailors and other service personnel to act as chauffeurs and aids to 274 Inaugural VIPs as well as several hundred additional Inaugural celebrants all the while proclaiming that no public money was being spent on the Inauguration

March 1981
Office of the Architect of the Capitol
For developing plans to build up to six new House and Senate Office Buildings that would cost at least $500 million to construct.

April 1981
Department of Housing and Urban Development
For letting slum landlords dump their low-quality, sub-standard housing on the backs of the taxpayers to the tune of a least $200 billion in fiscal year 1982.

May 1981
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
For construction cost overruns of $500 million for a Tracking Data Relay and Satellite System (TDRSS).

June 1981
Department of Commerce
For giving the City and County of Honolulu $28,600 to study how they can spend another $250,000 for a good surfing beach.

July 1981
Department of the Army
For spending $6,000 to prepare a 17-page document that tells the federal government how to buy a bottle of Worcestershire sauce.

August 1981
Managers of Social Security Trust Fund at Department of the Treasury
For poor investment policies that needlessly lost $2 billion in earnings in 1980.

September 1981
Department of Commerce?s Economic Development Administration
For spending $200,000 to build an 800 foot limestone replica of the Great Wall of China in Bedford, IN.

October 1981
National Science Foundation
For spending $144,012 to test commonly accepted, historically proven, fundamental economic principles on supply and demand ?on pigeons.

November 1981
Federal Highway Administration
For currently holding the worst record of civilian cost overruns in the Federal Government with $100 billion in cost overruns.

December 1981
Department of Defense
For running a $13,000, 6 year program in which a bull was tested for possible biological effects resulting from a submarine communications device ? a study later found useless by Navy officials. Long subject to rumor, the story of ?Sylvester the Bull? was confirmed in official Navy correspondence with Senator Proxmire.

January 1982
Department of Agriculture
For spending $40,000 for a study entitled ?Food Preferences and Social Security.?

February 1982
National Endowment for the Arts
For giving a $7,000 grant for a sound and light show at the state capitol in Madison, WI.

March 1982
Small Business Administration
For providing two loan guarantees ? almost $1 million in total ? to a California aquatic park for a giant water slide and other construction.

April 1982
Synthetic Fuels Corporation
For spending over $44,000 for a study which recommended increasing top salaries to as much as $190,000.

May 1982
Department of the Army (DARCM)
For spending $35 million over 13 years on a new gas mask that is no improvement over the masks that it will replace.

June 1982
Departments of Labor and Commerce
For shelling out over $700,000 to a non-profit corporation to teach minority youth how to make tee shirts - despite the fact that the department?s auditors said the program would fail (and it did).

July 1982
General Services Administration
For losing 49,000 forms ? the equivalent of open-ended airline tickets ? with a potential value of at least $7 million.

August 1982
Minority Business Development Agency
For spending $138,000 to conduct three management training seminars at 3-star resort hotels.

September 1982
190 Federal Officials
For being coddled and pampered at the expense of American taxpayers to the tune of $3.4 million by being provided with door-to-door chauffeur service.

October 1982
Office of Management and Budget
For letting Government big-shots eat high off the hog in 22 private dining rooms at an annual cost to the taxpayer of over $2.3 million.

November 1982
Public Health Service
For letting well-heeled doctors welsh on students loans financed by the taxpayer.

December 1982
Social Security Administration
For putting together a high-priced team of employees to plan a move to a new computer center and then shelling out $6.6 million to consultants to do the same work.

January 1983
Economic Development Administration
For allowing US cities and non-profit organizations to misuse a $198 million federal loan fund dedicated to creating local jobs.

February 1983
General Services Administration
For wasting $1.5 million ? with a potential of $13 million more ? trying to renovate an old train station in Nashville, TN.

March 1983
Department of the Navy
For spending $11,225 to decorate a Navy captain?s office.

April 1983
Department of Housing and Urban Development
For wasting over $1.2 million at one area office by paying several times for work done once, by approving loan payments on non-existing loans, and by blinking at excessive management fees for public housing projects.

May 1983
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
For spending $22,700 to seek out composers and artists who would like to spend taxpayers? money on art and music in a future space station.

June 1983
National Institute of Education
For failure to keep tabs on a $900,000 government contract. This resulted in about $500,000 of the taxpayer?s money being blown on everything from unsecured personal loans to purchasing a disco and promoting a rock concert.

July 1983
U.S. Coast Guard
For spending $1.1 million to build a boat repair station at Cape Hatteras, NC, which sat empty and unused for about a year

August 1983
U.S. District Court, Judges of Atlanta, GA
For fixing the jury on design and construction at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse and then serving the taxpayers with their bill for an extra $7 million.

September 1983
Department of the Army
For spending about $20,000 to prepare 30,000 fancy, multi-colored pamphlets explaining how to play King of the Hill.

October 1983
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
For wasting $232,000 of taxpayer?s money by miscalculating rental payments. Tenants in these projects pay only 25% of the rent with landlords claiming the rest from HUD.

November 1983
Health Care Financing Administration
For clipping the taxpayer of $45 million by allowing Medicare to foot the bill for cutting toenails.

December 1983
Economic Development Administration
For loaning $500,000 interest-free to a private company?s sole stockholder, for paying $314,320 in cash for a helicopter to be used by a sole stockholder, for purchasing a $65,000 lakeside cabin and for spending $1.7 million on other questionable transactions.

January 1984
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
For spending over $780,000 in tax funds to transport 2,228 VIPs and special guests to 12 Space Shuttle launches.

February 1984
Fort Worth Regional Office of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration
For mismanaging $64 million worth of capital improvement projects reviewed by Department of Transportation auditors for the period of January 1981-May 1983.

March 1984
U.S. Forest Service
For attempting to yoke four helicopters and a blimp into one contraption to lift logs from the national forests. The project was four years behind schedule and costs had ballooned from $26 million to $40 million.

April 1984
National Institute of Dental Research
For sponsoring a 5-year, $465,500 study to find out the ?effects of orthodontia on psycho-social functioning.?



lMay 1984
Award of Merit to General David B. Hoff of the Wisconsin Air Guard
For solving a safety hazard on A-10 aircraft in three months with $1,100 of his own money when all the experts said it would cost tens of thousands of dollars and take two years.

June 1984
Department of the Interior
For gross mismanagement by allowing the Territory of Guam to waste millions of dollars on paving parking lots at a private nightclub and an apartment building and for hiring people who spent much of their time drinking coffee.

July 1984
Federal Crop Insurance Corporation
For spending almost $12 million of federal funds on an advertising campaign to increase awareness of the federal crop insurance program and persuade farmers that it is a good investment. A study showed that farmers ended up knowing no more about this program after the ad campaign than they did before.

August 1984
Health Care Financing Administration
For Medicaid payments to psychiatrists for ?chance meetings? with patients who were attending basketball games, sitting on stoops, etc., -- the cost of which ran between $40-80 million over the last four years.

September 1984
State Department
For permitting employees to use over $400,000 to frolic on posh ocean cruises

October 1984
Defense Department
For spending $100,000 to fly cadets and midshipmen to California to attend last year?s Army-Navy game.

November 1984
Social Security Administration
For spending $1.6 million and 6 years trying and ultimately failing to get a new high-tech cassette tape filing system to work.

December 1984
Office of Management and Budget
For advocating cuts in domestic spending yet allowing 71 different government agencies to spend at least $12.9 million on entertainment costs in 1984.

[Arrow]

Senator William Proxmire?s
GOLDEN FLEECE AWARDS 1985-1988

DATE
RECIPIENT
DESCRIPTION

January 1985
Award of Merit to Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker
Award of merit for heading the best run agency in Washington, which brought down the rate of inflation, closed loopholes in banking laws, defused the debt problem of developing nations, and held the line on its own internal expenses.

February 1985
Defense Department
For spending nearly $28,000 to fly nine members of Congress to and from Washington in posh executive jets so they would not miss a close vote on the MX missile.

March 1985
Federal Aviation Administration
For wasting $48 million a year of taxpayers? money by allowing Florida airports to let thousands of acres of valuable federal land sit idle and leasing other land at bargain basement prices.

April 1985
Mine Safety and Health Administration
For operating its mine equipment testing center at a deficit for the last three years, at a cost of more than $10 million.

May 1985
Department of Housing and Urban Development
For spending over $1 million of public money to build an access road, ramp, and tunnel all leading to a privately-funded entertainment spa.

June 1985
Department of Education
For paying $760,000 in interest and fees to a major U.S. bank on unused student loans.

July 1985
Army Corps of Engineers
For spending over $33 million to rebuild 10 miles of beach, which fronts costly hotels and condominiums in Miami Beach.

August 1985
Western Area Power Administration
For spending $1.8 million on a jet so that its executives would not have to wait in line at commercial airlines.

September 1985
National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke
For spending $160,000 to study whether someone can ?hex? an opponent during a strength test by drawing an ?X? on his chest.

October 1985
Department of the Navy
For buying a $792 8x10 foot designer door mat.

November 1985
Department of Defense
For spending $162 million annually producing and buying periodicals and newspapers

December 1985
Urban Mass Transit Administration
For spending $30 billion over 20 years while transit revenues have dropped 26%, costs have increased 78%, and the taxpayers subsidy per passenger has increased 1,250%.

January 1986
Department of the Army
For letting former service members slip away with over $150 million in unpaid bills during the last six years.

February 1986
Department of the Air Force
For spending $600,000 to operate a posh private plane for the purpose of flying SAC commanders and other Air Force VIPs.

March 1986
Office of Management and Budget
For allowing federal agencies to increase their public relations expenditures from $376.2 million to $436.7 million, or by 16%, over the last two years.

April 1986
Federal Highway Administration
For charging taxpayers $21 million to pay for unused or unneeded roads and bridges in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska.

May 1986
Department of Defense
For spending more than $850,000 in 1985 to entertain foreign dignitaries.

June 1986
The U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Congress
For appropriating and spending $51 million preparing for Alaskan timber sales which lost on average 83 cents on the dollar.

July 1986
Department of Education
For spending $1 million on useless consulting contracts.

August 1986
Food and Nutrition Service
For wasting over $1 million between 1981 and 1985 by allowing a private company to cover its losses with taxpayers funds intended for feeding children in day-care homes.

September 1986
Army Corps of Engineers
For increasing spending on foreign travel by 47 percent between FY 1983 and FY 1985 while their total budget was falling by 3%.

October 1986
Department of Education
For permitting education officials in Louisiana to misuse $912,678 earmarked to serve the educational needs of handicapped children.

November 1986
Federal Aviation Administration
For spending $47 million to pay off debts incurred by bankrupt airlines that had used federally-guaranteed loans to buy airplanes and space parts.

December 1986
Economic Development Administration
For recommending the expansion of a failing $4 million business promotion program which its own auditors and the current administration said deserved to die.

January 1987
Environmental Protection Agency
For spending $206 million to build sewage treatment plants in Puerto Rico which were never functional and are now falling apart.

February 1987
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of Department of Agriculture
For organizing a song contest for its employees. The winning song, would remind APHIS employees ?of the team spirit that guides us in our job of protecting U.S. Agriculture?.

March 1987
Department of the Air Force
For decking taxpayers about $59,000 over the last six years for the cost of playing cards that were given away as souvenirs to visitors aboard Air Force Two.

April 1987
Presidential Inaugural Committee
For spending $15.5 million of the taxpayer?s funds for the 1985 Inaugural ? reimbursing the taxpayers for only 4% of the total costs incurred.

May 1987
Department of the Navy
For throwing away more than $88,000 of taxpayer?s money on a bloodmobile so poorly designed and so badly built that the vehicle can?t be operated safely, has numerous defects and has been gathering dust in a Bethesda Naval Hospital garage for the last three years.

June 1987
Executive Office of the President
For spending $611,623 to guild one medium sized room in the Old Executive Office Building.

July 1987
Department of Commerce
For a ?see no evil? policy permitting local authorities to so mismanage a federally-funded, revolving loan program that the local economy was hurt rather than helped and $1.3 million ? over 90 percent ? of the money was lost.

August 1987
Award of Merit to the Pentagon
Award of merit for three plans for reducing waste: 1) shooting down a Congressional maneuver to bail out a defense contractor for a cost overruns; 2) switching to less expensive computer diskettes; and 3) switching from a $52 gasket to an identical but less expensive $17 gasket in all of its purchases.

September 1987
National Science Foundation
For spending $9,992 on a study of ?Bullfights and Ideology of the ?Nation? in Spain.?

October 1987
Department of Energy
For concocting a witches brew to dispose of nuclear waste which may cost the taxpayers a glowing $1.6 billion by 1988. The Department has let some utilities avoid paying any of the costs of this disposal until a decade from now.

November 1987
Department of the Treasury
For a world-class $1.2 billion a year tax loophole which can only be used by U.S. citizens who live and work in foreign countries.

December 1987
Department of the Army
For digging a hole and burying $159,000 of taxpayers? dollars on decorative trees and shrubs which died within a year and had to be uprooted.

January 1988
Department of Commerce?s Minority Development Agency
For awarding a second $200,000 grant to a virtually useless conference of mayors in southern Texas despite being told by the Department?s own auditors that the performance of the Conference during the first grant was extremely poor and that the project should be terminated.

February 1988
Fish and Wildlife Service
For so mismanaging its payroll that the agency continued to certify for pay as current employees people who had actually left their jobs.

March 1988
National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health
For spending more than $107,000 to study the sexual behavior of Japanese quail under carefully controlled laboratory conditions.

April 1988
U.S. Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture
For cost-overruns of $1,420,175 on two communications systems in a program whose total cost for 5 systems was only $2,376,165 ? a cost overrun of 59%.

May 1988
Department of Commerce?s Office of Aircraft Operations
For wasting $1.9 million on two unneeded helicopters.

June 1988
Department of State
For spending over twice as much as was necessary for resurfacing a parking lot at their Rome embassy.

July 1988
Award of Merit to Wisconsin?s Department of Public Instruction
Award of Merit for achieving progress in education reform including: high scores on standardized tests; new Education Standards; low drop out rate; and a Children at Risk Initiative.



August 1988
Department of the Air Force
For taking off with over $22,000 in taxpayer money, the cost of ferrying two Air Force officials to and from a quail breakfast in Washington, DC.

September 1988
Urban Mass Transit Administration
For wasting $68,160 of taxpayers? money for the ?Goofy? idea of sending mass transit officials to Disney World in Orlando, FL to learn Disney?s secrets of motivating employees.

October 1988
Indian Health Services (Department of Health and Human Services)
For wasting $1.3 million on housing allowances when government housing was available.

November 1988
Department of State
For issuing travel expense money in advance and then failing to recoup the unused portion. The mishandled sum amounts to $15.4 million in delinquent repayments. As much as $686,000 was written off and completely lost to taxpayers in the last two years.

December 1988
Federal Aviation Administration
For wasting $7 million to $22 million on a mismanaged automation contract for air traffic controllers.

[David]

That adds up to about three hundred and sixty three billion dollars and some change ( 363,261,983,053 ) or approximately twenty seven billion a year ( 27,943,229,465 ). These are just the ones they could not push through under cover. I can not even begin to imagine how much is stolen a year that we have no idea about. This is our tax money at work. I ran across a website the other day that stated American citizens were being taxed by the government in direct opposition to the way taxes were supposed to be handled as set out by our founding fathers. They basically said we did not owe any federal taxes and there is even paperwork to file to tell the IRS you will no longer pay taxes hehe. This organization posted a $10,000 ( think that was the amount ) reward to anyone who could prove them wrong using our own constitution. The reward still stands after years of testing. Now I have no idea if all that is true or not but It sure is obvious our money, whether collected illegally or not, is being used in an illegal fashion.

[Arrow]

and have we considered the cost of taking in illigals and providing medical care and community service for them..not to mention the trillions spent on foreign aid. Seen with these eyes aid in the form of food stuffs sent to South Ameican Countries hijacked and being sold in open air markets for a high profit with the proud letters of USA visiable for all the world to see.

David I had some friends that protested their taxes back in the 80's and they were promptly called into the offices of the IRS and humiliated for hours. It turns out the organization advocating not paying was paying promptly but turning a profit off their books and seminar's being held around the country. There is no way of escaping the IRS except with a damn good tax lawyer. I would not recommend it to those of us livin' hand to mouth and out the window...sounds like big fines and jail time for poor people...

Thanks for doin' the math..damn your good...sis

Immigrants, Amnesty, and Foreign Aid
April 30, 2002

Some really bad ideas are floating around Capitol Hill and the White House, so it's time for concerned citizens to express their opinions before these bad ideas become law. Two that need immediate attention are amnesty for illegal immigrants and proposals to substantially increase foreign aid.

Amnesty for illegal aliens would already be a done deal if it weren't for Senator Robert Byrd's action to delay the pending legislation. "It is lunacy--sheer lunacy--that the president would request, and the House would pass such an amnesty at this time," said Byrd. The events of September 11 should provide ample proof that we need to scrutinize illegal immigrants like never before.

But there is more than meets the eye. The bill in question did not deal with all illegal immigrants, only those from Mexico. Mexican immigrants generally represent a much less significant threat than illegal aliens from the Arab world. Could it be the real issue is politics?

Senator Byrd believed that the Republican House and the White House pushed forward this measure to curry votes with Hispanics (who are the fastest growing segment of the voting public). In fact, the only illegal aliens who would be granted amnesty are Mexican immigrants who overstayed their visas. Even though Mexican immigrants raise less of a security concern than immigrants from other countries, there is an important principle at stake.

This bill would reward lawbreakers who violate the system and punish those who dutifully go through the naturalization process. And once we grant amnesty to some illegal immigrants, it's likely that the trend will quickly be extended to those from other countries. The current bill would grant amnesty for 200,000 but is seen as part of an incremental approach that could eventually lead to amnesty for as many as 12 million people.

So immigrants who break our laws get amnesty, while law-abiding immigrants wait in line for years to receive citizenship. Something is terribly wrong with this bill, especially since it seems to be done for politically expediency so that Republicans can build its base with Hispanic voters.

Another bad idea making its way through the corridors of power is an unprecedented increase in foreign aid. In March, the Irish rock singer Paul Hewson--who insists the world call him Bono--visited the president in March demanding the U.S. give more foreign aid around the world. And later that month, at the United Nations conference in Monterrey, Mexico, the president proposed a 50 percent increase in foreign aid.

The foreign aid, the president said, would be in the form of grants rather than loans. Moreover, he also proposed forgiving much of the current Third World debt. So countries that refuse to repay the debts they owe will be forgiven, and nations receiving future aid won't be obligated to pay back the funds they receive. Looks like we aren't just giving amnesty to illegal aliens; we are giving amnesty to most of the debtor nations of the world!

Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund is also pushing for more funds to distribute worldwide. Media stories are beginning to surface lauding the benefits and success stories of the IMF and other international donor agencies. But reality is just the opposite.

Economist Thomas Sowell points out that it was "the cutbacks in American economic aid to Taiwan and South Korea in the 1960s which forced these countries to get their own acts together and institute the reforms which led to their economic rise." Economic success in these and other countries did not come about because of dependency on U.S. foreign aid. Just the opposite.

Of course there are times when short-term help is essential. The Marshall Plan in post-WWII Europe and emergency aid to countries devastated by earthquake, famine, or typhoon are essential. But continued shipments and dependency often inhibit the development of business and agriculture.

Professor Peter Bauer of the London School of Economics convincingly argued that foreign aid was often a foreign hindrance. Transfers of wealth to Third World governments often arrested economic development frequently making matters worse rather than better.

Research at the liberal Brookings Institution comes to a similar conclusion. Michael O'Hanlon and Carol Graham concluded that "countries getting more aid do worse macroeconomically, on average, than those getting less." Foreign aid is rarely invested, but instead is immediately consumed. Government grows larger and consumption expands, but no positive impact is made on the economy or its infrastructure.

Poverty exists usually for one of three reasons. First, a country may have the wrong political system. Citizens are exploited by their dictatorial leaders and they have no legal recourse for redress, thus poverty remains. Second, a country may have the wrong economic system. Investment, entrepreneurship, and a free market are stifled by an economic system that keeps the poor from escaping the cycle of poverty. Finally, a country may have the wrong religious system that prevents the wise and compassionate use of vital resources (land, livestock, capital). Foreign aid does not deal with these major reasons for poverty.

Over the last 40 years, more than $1 trillion in foreign aid has been spread throughout the globe. Much of it has lined the pockets of dictators and despots. Much of that which remained has been wasted or poorly invested. In many parts of the world poverty is worse than when foreign aid began to be liberally distributed in the Kennedy-Johnson era.

A fifty percent increase in foreign aid will not help poor nations. And forgiving debts from Third World countries will send the wrong signal just as granting amnesty to illegal aliens will send the wrong signal. These are bad ideas that don't need to become laws.


? 2002 Probe Ministries International



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kerby Anderson is the president of Probe Ministries International. He received his B.S. from Oregon State University, M.F.S. from Yale University, and M.A. from Georgetown University. He is the author of several books, including Genetic Engineering, Origin Science, Living Ethically in the 90s, Signs of Warning, Signs of Hope, and Moral Dilemmas.
He is a nationally syndicated columnist whose editorials have appeared in the Dallas Morning News, the Miami Herald, the San Jose Mercury, and the Houston Post.

He is the host of "Probe," and frequently serves as guest host on "Point of View" (USA Radio Network) and "Open Line" (Moody Broadcasting Network). He can be reached via e-mail at kerby@probe.org.

[Arrow]

www.taxpayer.net/awards/goldenfleece/history.htm

www.bailoutwatch.org/index.htm

[David]

That's what I figure would happen ( jail, fines ) if you followed after those types of groups. The outline of their program sounds shady at best but it was food for thought

[Arrow]

Yup! And you can bet the American Taxpayer has fed on that particular thought everytime April 15th rolls around. Esp our younger workers. Living in close proximity to me are some very hard working young people and listening to their discourse they are runnin' out of patience. While they acknowledge the need for compassion and helping their neighbor they have zip to zero patience with all this waste. The problem is they have to keep their head down all the time to stay one step a head of the tax man so they rarely have time to fight the corruption that is daily stealing right off the top of their pay check.

I'll call you in a min..you know that problem I have had with my monitor..it is gettin worse..the screen is gettn kinda of funky..movin around on me...no I'm not drinkin' I'm still on parole..