‘Most Wasteful’ Government Spending of 2010

The Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert receives nearly half-a-million dollars every year from taxpayers for an office he rarely visits. The allowance pays for a fully furnished office, staff, franked mail, phone bills, cable, and payments to lease a car. According to one news report, the former Speaker rarely visits the office and his three staff members each earn over $100,000. Adding together fiscal years 2008 and 2009, $879,000 of taxpayer money went toward providing the former Speaker a stipend to maintain an office after leaving Congress. Current law limits the payments to former Speakers to five years after finishing their term as the top-ranking House leader. Former Senate Majority Leaders do not receive a comparable stipend when they retire.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Some Texas residents are unhappy with over $42,544433 in federal funds being allocated towards posting 400 signs showing how high the storm surge would be in a major hurricane. The signs are intended to show how deep the water would be if there were a 25-foot storm surge. While the local reaction has been mixed, realtor Susan Maki told one reporter, “I think they’re overkill. I think they frighten people.” Ms. Maki also noted that she fears the signs will lower property values. The cities of Galveston, LaPorte, and Seabrook determined the signs are unnecessary and said no thanks to the free signs.  (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The Federal Highway Administration spent $36,000418 co-sponsoring the 2010 International Symposium on Bicycling and Walking, which occurred from September 13th through 17th. The conference featured a Pro Walk/Pro Bike Networking Party and numerous bicycle and pedestrian related workshops, such as “Tips and Strategies for Using Social Media.” Another session taught attendees that “[b]icycle and pedestrian planning in Mexican cities such as Guadalajara, Leon, and Aguascalientes offer many lessons that are appropriate in cities around the U.S.” Participants were also coached on strategies on getting more federal funding: “Attendees will learn how to apply for [federal] funds: what works, what doesn’t.”  (Photo by Jason Bean/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

The Department of Defense (DOD) currently administers a network of grocery and retail stores on military bases around the world. The Defense Commissary Agency operates grocery stores (commissaries), while retail goods are sold by the Army and Air Force Exchange, the Navy Exchange, and the Marine Corps Exchange. Since these agencies are separate but perform similar functions, they each operate duplicative overhead headquarters and staff. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has proposed consolidating the military services commissaries and exchanges. A portion of the savings from the consolidation could be paid to members of the Armed Forces as an additional cash benefit (grocery allowance), to be spent at the new agency or in their local community at commercial grocery and retail stores or online. This effort would save $157 million in 2010.  (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

Everyone loves getting postcards in the mail from friends. Postcards from members of Congress may not be so fun - especially if you are the one paying for it. In 2010, Congress approved $500,000 for a pilot program for postcard mailings by senators “for the purpose of providing notice of a town meeting by a senator in a county...at which the senator will personally attend.” This is certainly not a priority in a time of budget shortfalls.  (Photo by Lake County Museum/Getty Images)

The Foreign Market Development Program provides funding for efforts to promote exports of agricultural products from the U.S., such as grains and oilseed, and higher value products such as meat and poultry. However, the program is duplicative of the Market Access Program (MAP), which works similarly to create and expand foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products. Specifically, MAP also promotes the export of products such as eggs, fruit, meat, poultry, seafood, tree nuts, and vegetables. In 2010, $26.5 million of the programs budget went to groups and trade associations, such as the National Renderers Association, that also received Market Access Program funding.  (Photo by CARLOS CARRION/AFP/Getty Images)

An $81,005 grant will fund a study to determine how to rehabilitate an eighty year-old dairy barn into a “major tourist attraction” in Georgia. Specifically, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) money will “develop a plan for the stabilization, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the Huston Dairy Barn as a Coastal Interpretive Center.” “In other words, we’re not going to put cows back in there,” remarked the executive director of Darien’s Downtown Development Authority.  (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

Howard County, Maryland was recently named by Forbes as the third richest county in the nation, with a median household income over $101,000. Maybe that is why one local county official sees the $4.7 million price tag for three new electric buses as a bargain. The money will be used to purchase three “first of its kind” electric buses that can charge without being plugged in. The primary destination for the buses will be the local Columbia Mall. The Federal Transit Administration is chipping in $3.7 million toward the total cost through its Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) Program. At nearly $1.56 million per bus, County Executive Ken Ulman counted the purchases as “another example of our commitment to saving the environment and saving money.”  (Photo by RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP/Getty Images)

The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (HMEP) provides consultative services for manufacturers that can be found many other places in the private and public sectors. Through non-profit partner offices throughout America, HMEP claims to help “clients achieve higher profits, save time and money, invest in physical and human capital, and create and retain thousands of jobs.” In 2007, the Office of Management and Budget found that “the program only serves a small percentage of small manufacturers each year” and that one-fifth of all companies aided by HMEP had more than 250 employees. Originally, HMEP centers were to become self-sustaining but have never been able to, receiving more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer resources. Elimination of this program was included in the Congressional Budget Office’s August 2009 Budget Options document, which noted, “Proponents of this option question whether it is appropriate or necessary for the government to provide technical assistance such as that offered by the HMEP program...The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has noted that survey results from the Modernization Forum indicate that about half of the partnership’s clients believe the services they obtained from HMEP are available other places, although at a higher cost.” This program received $124 million in the Appropriations Bill for FY2010 and received $110 million in FY2009 appropriations. Similar programs include the Small Business Administration;s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) program, which funds similar nonprofit extension centers meant to service small businesses in achieving economic success with consulting advice they may not be able to afford. The SBDC program received $113 million in FY2010.  (Photo by STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

Taxpayers may not quite get the twang for their buck from this project. A North Carolina county hopes a $1.5 million federal grant for a museum honoring a local bluegrass singer will provide an economic boost. The Earl Scruggs Center, which is not expected to open until the end of 2011, will contain exhibits paying tribute to the well-known banjo musician. “[Scruggs] changed the way people looked at the banjo as an instrument,” remarked the Destination Cleveland County Executive Director. The U.S. Department of Commerce awarded the grant on April 7, 2010.  (Photo by Jeff Gentner/Getty Images)

Eager to trade taxpayer money for political goodwill, lawmakers are using taxpayer dollars to line the pockets of certain schools and colleges with frivolous education “pork.” Two federal programs, each intended to spur innovation of the American educational system, serve as slush funds for congressional pork projects: the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) and the Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE). Over the last decade, Washington politicians obtained 5,563 earmarks costing nearly $2.3 billion through these programs. In federal fiscal year 2010 alone, Congress provided over $101 million to the FIPSE program and over $125 million to FIE. In federal fiscal year 2010, 97.4 percent of U.S. Department of Education’s earmarks flowed through FIPSE and FIE, including 543 earmarks costing more than $190 million. A closer look at the types of projects funded by Washington politicians through these two programs show that their money has not been put to good use. This decade, Congress has earmarked federal taxpayer dollars to fund: wine studies; politicians’ legacy programs; a study for a school that does not exist; efforts to deter negativity; mariachi music; and seemingly endless projects far removed from the nation’s fiscal priorities.  (Photo by Alfredo Sosa / The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has provided $216,884 in funding to the University of California Berkeley and Stanford University to study “Candidate Ambiguity and Voter Choice.” The researchers will review transcripts of all presidential debates since 1960 and ask whether “candidates avoid or limit their ambiguity in circumstances when our experiments suggest that ambiguity would be harmful? Do candidates use ambiguity differently in primaries than in general elections?....And do candidates call attention to ambiguity when our experiments show that it could be advantageous?” The researchers will also review if “candidates can gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions.”  (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) paid out $900,000 in confidential, out-of-court settlements to four female plaintiffs who filed sexual harassment suits against its director. The office oversees public housing for the city of Philadelphia, but nearly all of its $345 million annual budget is paid by using federal funds. The director, Carl Greene, has since been fired. A lawyer for one claimant, PHA architect Elizabeth Helm, said Greene told her a promotion was “contingent on a quid pro quo based on her succumbing to his unwanted sexual advances.” The lawyer said Green told Helm, “I know you don’t want to kiss me,” before grabbing her and kissing her.  (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

From June 12th to 22nd, 2010, as teachers across the nation faced potential layoffs, federal funds sent U.S. teachers to China to learn more about China’s education system. “One of the main goals of the trip was for Roxboro teachers to develop a firsthand appreciation of Chinese language and culture,” glowed the district’s director of ducational services. The funding for the twelve-person trip abroad came from a $177,746 Foreign Language Assistance Program grant, which the U.S. Department of Education administers. Taxpayers, however, did not sign the permission slip for this overseas trip.  (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Funded at $60 million annually, the Homeland Security’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Grant Program was originally designed to support local emergency preparedness efforts, targeting areas of specific need in each state and locality. Unfortunately, the earmarking of EOC funds has significantly reduced the program’s effectiveness. The president’s FY 2010 budget called for the program’s termination, stating that its “focus was compromised, and by 2009, 60 percent of the EOC grant funds were congressional earmarks not allocated by merit-based criteria.”  (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Someone needs to teach cows proper manners. A $700,000 federal grant paid for researchers to examine “greenhouse gas emission from organic dairies, which are cause by cow burps, among other things.” The principle investigator told a reporter, “[c]ows emit most of their methane through belching, only a small fraction from flatulence.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded the funds to the University of New Hampshire “to create a computer model that measures the amount of greenhouse gases an organic dairy farm produces and thus provide ways to cut those emissions.” One of the purposes of the research is also to find ways to make organic farms more financially competitive with general farms.  (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) operates a noncompetitive, highly earmarked program through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for “health care facilities and activities.” The program duplicates existing efforts within both HRSA and HHS, according to the the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB found the program to be “highly duplicative of other Federal, state, and private efforts,” and provides funding to “organizations that also receive funds for the same purpose through other HRSA programs, Medicare and Medicaid capital payments, NIH, the Federal Housing Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”  (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

At least $8.6 million in federal funds were paid this year for overseas wine and beer promotion. The grants came from the Market Access Program (MAP) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The MAP program distributed $8.3 million to the Wine Institute, the Northwest Wine Promotion Coalition, and the New York Wine and Grape Foundation. The Brewers Association, Inc, “an organization of brewers, for brewers and by brewers” that focuses on the promotion of craft beer, received a $365,655 federal grant. In 2008, the total dollar amount of U.S. wine and brandy shipments exceeded $13.4 billion. Additionally, in 2009, the United States produced over 758 million gallons of wine, with California accounting for 90 percent. According to the Brewers Association, “[c]raft brewer retail dollar value in 2009 was an estimated $6.98 billion, up from $6.32 billion in 2008.”  (Photo by ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

All parents would love to be able to send their kids to a high-priced and prestigious university. Some may be shocked to learn roughly $5 million in federal funds goes to sending government employees to Harvard. Sending federal employees to a month-long Ivy League university leadership course costs taxpayers more than $18,000, which is two times what the “average public university charges for tuition and fees...” One federal employee that attended the leadership course said that the “days were packed with sessions. And though they weren’t particularly difficult academically, the benefit was not in its academic rigor.”  (Photo by Glen Cooper/Getty Images)

Bill O’Reilly and Rachel Maddow are not to blame for polarizing American politics, at least according to one researcher. The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided a $66,638 grant to Temple University political scientist Kevin Arceneaux to study the influence of political programming in mass media. He set out to test the claim that cable television shows allow the public to insulate themselves from opposing viewpoints--polarizing the electorate. For the study, Arceneaux conducted two experiments. In the first, subjects were forced to watch a 15-minute segment from ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ or ‘The O’Reilly Factor’. In the second experiment, another group of subjects were allowed to choose between Hardball with Chris Matthews or one of two unrelated entertainment shows, with a separate control group watching only an entertainment show. His test results found that while the choices people make in consuming the news have some effect, it is possible that some of the problem lies with a public that is more interested in voting than it used to be. Among the more puzzling of his findings, Arceneaux places the blame for polarization on “increasing voter turnout.”  (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Officials in Cook County, Ill., used $79,000 in federal funds meant to repair and rebuild homes damaged by floods to throw a picnic party at a local zoo for an estimated 2,200 victims of a 2008 flood who had yet to receive help. A spokesman for Cook County Board, President Todd Stroger, said the event¿¿¿s costs included catering fees of $28 per adult and $23 per child for “hungry as a bear” picnic baskets, and a $2,000 charge for pavilion rental.  (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

Congress has spent more than $668 million maintaining a “wild horse and burro” population on federal and private land.213 This year, spending for the program increased by 58 percent to $64 million. Because Congress has protected these “wild horses,” the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), has been unable to maintain the appropriate levels of horses on federal lands, causing private and public damage and dramatically increasing federal costs of the program.  (Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP/Getty Images)

As the nation approaches the 200 year commemoration of the War of 1812, archaeologists in Maryland are working to excavate a sunken ship that may date. back to the war. Using nearly 400,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the researchers believe the ship may be the remains of the U.S.S. Scorpion, which was tasked with defending Washington, D.C., but was sunk by the British. According to the Washington Post, “[t]he excavation is part of Maryland’s effort to create a tourism cash cow from the bicentennial of a war whose biggest claim to fame is inspiring “The Star-Spangled Banner.’” The entire project may consume as much as $4 million total, but all of the funding has not yet been arranged. Questions have been raised, however, about why the state’s transportation funding was used for this purpose even as Maryland has over 250 deficient bridges.  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Some may not know much about Idaho’s fledgling wine industry. But thanks to taxpayer-financed “marketing strategy,” we will all be paying to learn much more. The $100,000 grant will help boost the growth and recognition of Idaho’s wine industry. “It’ll give us the opportunity to make some headway in putting ourselves on the map,” says the head of the Idaho Grape Growers and Wine Producers Commission. The money comes from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.  (Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) secured a grant for $800,000 in stimulus funds to study the effects of a genital-washing program in Orange Farm, South Africa. Investigators will attempt to teach “uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex,” and hope doing so will prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.  (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images)

The National Park Service (NPS) spent $90,825 in stimulus funds to upgrade Marion Park, a popular dog destination on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The money went to repainting the existing fence, sidewalk repair, and purchasing new benches and trash cans for the park. According to NPS, this canine-friendly park is “the perfect place to take the kids for a stroll to the playground, or enjoy a snack in the grass under any of many ornamental trees.” Doggeek.com considers Marion Park a dog park and notes that it also offers poop bags and water for canines.  (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

For years the Woodstock Film Festival has been a favorite stomping ground for Hollywood¿¿¿s brightest stars, and 2010 was no exception. This year, taxpayer funds totaling $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts helped sponsor the 11th Annual Woodstock Film Festival (WFF), which occurred from September 29 to October 3. The festival included some adult-only fare, such as “Bill Plympton and Signe Baumane’s BATTLE OF THE SEXES,” billed as “a very sexy, very funny, ABOVE 18 ONLY program,” which involved “showing the funniest, sexiest, animated cartoons in a 5-round match to discover which gender makes the hottest cartoons!”  (Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage)

Unneeded space in federal courthouses costs the taxpayer $51 million annually, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO examined 33 federal courthouse projects completed since 2000. It found millions of square feet of unnecessary space -- nine courthouses’ worth -- which Congress never approved.  (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Over $2.6 million of taxpayer money will go to “parliamentary strengthening” in Eastern Europe. The Research Foundation of State University of New York (SUNY/CID) will use the federal funds to address ‘policy development, legislation formulation and oversight functions.’ Some of the skills they would like to enhance are budget oversight initiatives and legislative drafting skills of legislators. With a $13.8 trillion dollar debt, if the U.S. State Department wants to improve the budgetary oversight functions of a legislature it should look first here at home.  (Photo by JOHANNA LEGUERRE/AFP/Getty Images)

“It beats being at work!” glowed one Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) manager at a taxpayer-funded conference last December. The FAA spent $5 million to send 3,600 employees to a “conference” in Atlanta, although “whistle blowers and critics say [the conference] was little more than an excuse to throw a three-week-long Christmas party.” An undercover investigation by ABC World News revealed the nightly parties got a bit on the wild side. “Anytime you get a bunch of FAA guys together, it is nothing but a party,” bragged one FAA employee. According to the report, “[a]nother conference attendee asked a female ABC News undercover reporter if she was a ‘hooker’ because ‘I was ready to reach for my wallet.’”  (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

The Department of Agriculture gave nearly $30,000 to a group of farmers looking to create a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight “haycations.” Numerous websites already exist to educate would-be “agritourists” of their “farm stay” options, including websites for the farms themselves. A simple Google search for the term “farm stay” returns more than 300,000 hits. The federally funded website, www.farmstayus.com, will help “agritourists” looking to rough it on a farm or ranch instead of taking the typical vacation. The website warns, however, that such getaways are not without risk: “A word of caution, these are working farms and ranches, not amusement parks or petting zoos, and always have an element of danger.”  (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent nearly $442,340 million to study the number of male prostitutes in Vietnam and their social setting. According to the project’s abstract, the University of Puerto Rico examined “the impact of male sex work on the growing HIV epidemics in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.” The NIH summary pointed to “an expansion of markets for male sex work and international male sex tourism.”  (Photo by Palani Mohan/Getty Images)

The National Science Foundation directed nearly a quarter million dollars to a Stanford University professor¿¿¿s study of how Americans use the Internet to find love. The project surveys over 4,000 Americans on how they met their partners and how long those relationships lasted.  (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

The Internal Revenue Service paid out $112 million in undeserved tax refunds to prisoners who filed fraudulent returns, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). According to TIGTA, The IRS fails to screen most tax returns filed by prisoners - even when it knows it has no wage information for them. The inspector general’s office first highlighted this lack of oversight in 2005, but the problem has persisted.  (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Our nation currently faces many challenges; a shortage of poetry in our nation’s zoos, however, is rarely cited as one of them. It is not widely viewed as an example of our nation’s crumbling infrastructure or a contributor to our national economic crisis. Nor is it a dangerous disease in need of curing. Nevertheless, a federal grant program has directed a million dollars from the public coffers to infuse zoos around the United States with snippets of poetry.  (Photo by KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)

Medicare paid out over $35 million to a vast network of 118 “phantom” medical clinics, allegedly established by members of a criminal gang to submit phony reimbursement claims. The clinics never existed anywhere but in paperwork. Prosecutors say the gang used stolen identities for dozens of doctors and over 2,000 patients to file over $100 million worth of phony claims via these “clinics.”  (Photo by ROD LAMKEY JR/AFP/Getty Images)

In 2008, Professor Bonnie Nardi of the University of California-Irvine received $100,007 from the National Science Foundation to “analyze and understand the ways in which players of World of Warcraft, a popular multiplayer game, engage in creative collaboration.” Dr. Nardi published her findings in a new book, My Life as a Night Elf Priest, released in May 2010.  (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

A report finds that federal agencies - excluding the Department of Defense (DOD) - spend nearly $1.3 billion a year on office printing. Of these printing costs, the study identifies $440.4 million a year -- 34 percent -- spent on unnecessary printing. These figures do not include the funds agencies spend to publish various documents for public consumption, but rather the estimated annual printing expenditures based on the average federal civilian employee.  (Photo by Peter Wafzig/Getty Images)

The city of Shreveport, Louisiana misspent $1.5 million in stimulus funds on mold remediation for a housing complex it was considering for demolition, according to a federal audit. To obtain the stimulus money, the city’s housing authority promised the federal government it would spend the money on improving a number of low-income homes it managed. Those projects included a mere $100,000 for combating mold and mildew at an apartment complex named Wilkinson Terrace (not pictured).  (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)