1) A Billion For Big Tobacco
Senator Jeff Flake’s December 2015 Wastebook detailed some prime examples, including this:
Yet, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has spent more than $1.1 billion over the past two years to subsidize and support the tobacco industry.182 The bulk of this was spent making the final direct income support payments to tobacco growers in 2014. USDA expended more than $119 million to support the tobacco industry in 2015. This includes more than $69 million for direct income support payments and $385,000 on administering those payments. Other amounts include: $45 million by the Risk Management Agency for crop insurance, $58,000 by the Agricultural Marketing Service for “market news reporting (collection and dissemination of auction market process and sales volume data),” $261,000 by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture on research, and $110,000 by the National Agricultural Statistics Service for tobacco crop condition, yield and production data collection.
2) $40 Million on a Trump Hotel
Details in Senator James Lankford’s Federal Fumbles:
In June 2013, the Trump Organization was selected as the developer of the Old Post Office in Washington, DC, in what the organization claims to be “the most sought-after hotel redevelopment opportunity in the country.” The Trump Organization is investing $200 million to renovate the prime real estate into a five-star hotel that will be “in a level of luxury previously unseen in this market.” When all is said and done, American taxpayers will chip in $40 million to help cover the costs to “restore this magnificent building to even well beyond its original grandeur.”
3) $7.7 Million For “Soap Operas, Obesity Rap Songs, Hotel Shower Monitoring”
Elizabeth Harrington writes in the Washington Free Beacon,
The federal government spent more on anti-obesity rap songs, a soap opera series about HIV, and a device to monitor how long hotel guests spend in the shower than Congress spent investigating the attack in Benghazi, Libya.
4) $25 Million for These Government-Funded Studies Nobody Needed
In May, Flake released a list of 20 taxpayer-funded studies that together cost taxpayers about $35 million.
“Why does walking with coffee cause it to spill? ($172,000) “Do drunk birds slur when they sing?” ($5 million) “Why does the face of Jesus appear on toast?” ($3.5 million)
5) $250 Million to Train 60 Syrian Rebels
Details in Lankford’s Federal Fumbles:
Last year, Congress gave $500 million in federal tax money to train and provide equipment for at least 5,400 Syrian rebels fighting against ISIL. Over the next year, DOD spent about half of that amount and managed to train an overwhelming force of 60 fighters. In other words DOD spent about $4 million per rebel.
6) $200 Million Every Year For Private Company Product Promotion
Details in Lankford’s Federal Fumbles:
Every year, the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service’s (FAS) Market Access Program (MAP) gives nearly $200 million in American tax money to companies and trade groups to subsidize the advertising, market research, and travel costs of their overseas product promotions.
7) Tens Of Millions For Amtrak Food
Details in Lankford’s Federal Fumbles:
“Amtrak has an expensive appetite. Its food and beverage services operate at major losses each year, requiring taxpayers to pick up the difference. From 2006 through 2012, Amtrak suffered $609 million in direct losses from these services alone.While Amtrak lost $105.2 million in 2006 on these services, by 2012 losses were down to only $72 million.”
8) $21.5 Million For Political Parties in Pakistan
Details in Flake’s Wastebook:
“Pakistanis distrust most parties, which they believe lack democratically developed policies and are driven by the personal interests of an out-of-touch leadership,” according to a report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Yet, USAID provided $21.5 million for a Political Party Development Program in Pakistan to help shape and build parties in the country.260 This included development of party policy platforms and communications training for party bosses and grassroots members for eleven different political parties. The program has been riddled by mismanagement and its resources have not been spent “wisely.”
9) $60 Million for a Slumlord
Details in Flake’s Wastebook:
Federal officials blocked safety inspections of public housing in Tennessee owned by a slumlord who has been collecting millions of dollars in taxpayer money while his residents have been living in deplorable conditions with broken pipes, exposed electrical sockets, and infestation with roaches, bedbugs, and rodents. Global Ministries Foundation (GMF) received more than $60 million in subsidies from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last year to provide public housing at Goodwill Village and Warren Apartments in Memphis.
10) $1 Trillion In Erroneous Payments
Details in Flake’s Wastebook:
Bogus business tax benefits for corporations. Free lunches for the well-off. Student aid for prisoners and crime rings. Paying the same energy bills… twice. And billions of dollars in handouts for the dead. These are just a small sampling of the nearly $1 trillion worth of erroneous payments the federal government has made over the past decade.669 The total annual cost of improper payments has been near or above $100 billion every year since 2009,670 reaching a record high of $125 billion in 2014.
