8 Ways The Government Wasted Your Money In 2015

With the new year finally here, it’s time to check Sen. James Lankford’s 2015 government waste report.

It’s basically the right’s unofficial tradition. You know, highlighting the dumbest ways the U.S. government spent our money.  You can catch up on past government waste reports here.

Lankford recently published a 145-page report titled “Federal Fumbles: 100 Ways the Government Dropped the Ball,” and boy, there are some doozies.

Cited here are not only prime examples of wasteful spending, but also federal departments or agencies that regulate outside the scope of the federal government’s constitutional role. I firmly believe my staff and I have the obligation to solve the troubles of our nation, not just complain, which is why for every problem identified, you will also find a recommended solution. There is a way to eliminate wasteful, ineffective, or duplicative program spending; develop oversight methods to prevent future waste; and find ways to get us back on track.

Here are some things you should probably know:

• The National Institutes of Health spent $2,658,929 on a weight-loss intervention program for truck drivers. Because that’s our problem.
• They also spent $48,500 to study the “history of tobacco use in Russia.”
• The Department of Defense spent $42,718,739 on a gas station in Afghanistan.
• The National Endowment for the Arts spent tens of thousands of dollars “for silent adaptations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and others at a Washington, DC-area theater.”
• The National Science Foundation spent $1.2 million to teach robots how to dress people.
• The Fish and Wildlife Service spent $30,000 on American Burying Beetle credits. You know. Securing a safe space for this particular beetle. Because why the heck not?
• The National Park Service spent $65,473 “to demonstrate what happens to bugs when the lights go out.”
• The Department of Agriculture spent $35,000 “to install solar panels at a brewery in northern Michigan, which will support seven percent of their annual energy needs.” Solar beer. We need that. Obviously.

In response to the waste, Lankford proposed the Taxpayer’s Right to Know Act, which “creates a central database for the financial data of every federal program in all federal agencies and departments.”

Agencies and departments would be required to develop performance metrics for all of their programs and provide a yearly report card. This centralized database would provide an accessible source for everyone to see how our federal government spends money and how effectively that money is used. You have every right to know how your government spends your money. Sunlight is the solution to most of our federal waste.”

He’s right. We have every right to know how they’re spending wasting our money. Ignorance is bliss. We need to know.