Libertarian Party's top 11

Governmental wastes of tax payer money. Libertarian patry...not MagiK's personal views....just what they find egregious.


Rampant government waste, fraud and abuse only adds insult to the injury inflicted by the income tax," said Geoffrey Neale, national chair of the Libertarian Party. "On tax day, it's time to remind ourselves how right humorist P.J. O'Rourke was when he said giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teen-age boys."

Here are the party's most egregious federal spending items, according to its statement:

1. "Giving $170 million to a pornographer who wants to hand out condoms around the world. The U.S. Agency for International Development awarded the grant to Population Services International, or PSI, a nonprofit corporation whose mission is to curb sexually transmitted diseases. PSI was founded in 1971 by Philip Harvey, who runs a massive mail-order pornography firm called Adam and Eve.

2. "Funding a $1.8 million study of algae in hot water. The funding, contained in an omnibus appropriations bill, was given to the Bozeman, Mont., Center on Life in Extreme Thermal Environments, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.

3. "Authorizing a $1 million program at Auburn University to train dogs to spot terrorist activity. The money was earmarked by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., in a bill funding the Veterans Administration and Housing Department.

4. "Spending $3.6 million for 'team-building' exercises for the Postal Service. At a series of employee retreats, hundreds of Postal workers played children's games, sang 'We Are Family,' wrote Christmas carols, went on treasure hunts, dressed in cat costumes, took scat singing lessons, and talked to imaginary wizards, magicians and mad scientists at staff meetings.

5. "Mailing Social Security checks to fugitives. Though a 1996 law prohibits the payments, 36,752 fugitives have been collecting benefits anyway, costing taxpayers $223.7 million, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

6. "Paying $560 million to trim weeds at the Montana Sheep Institute – money contained in a $397.4 billion appropriations bill passed by Congress earlier this year.

7. "Authorizing pay raises for Congress and other federal workers. Senators and representatives raised their salaries by $5,000 this year, to $154,700. President Bush also handed a 4.1 percent pay increase in February to federal workers, even though many of the private-sector employees footing the bill are taking pay cuts and even losing their jobs in a difficult economy.

9. "Hiring 2 million government workers – in Iraq. As part of the postwar plan to 'promote stability,' the Pentagon wants to pay the salaries of 2 million soldiers, teachers, police officers and other government workers in Iraq – in effect putting one out of every 10 Iraqis on the U.S. government payroll.

10. "Selling expensive government property for pennies. According to government auditors, the Energy Department sold a $9,000 copier to NTS Development Corp. for 5 cents, and sold the firm 23 trucks worth $448,000 for 17 cents each.

11. "Guaranteeing even more waste, fraud and abuse next year by increasing the federal budget to a record $2.3 trillion."

Commented Neale: "Considering all the ways the government is already squandering your money, giving politicians a bigger budget is like giving those teen-age boys another shot of whiskey and a faster car. The only way to protect the nation from these reckless spendaholics is to cut the politicians off for good by ending the income tax."

Der bumpen.

[antryg]

Originally posted by MagiK: Der bumpen.

My german is kinda rusty MagiK. Maybe it is Dutch. Perhaps Johnny can translate.

I gave a party and no one came [img]smile.gif[/img] ohh well I guess I'll just have to cry myself to sleep

[Timber Loftis]

Der Bumpen. R-O-F-L

Didn't see it until now. Good post. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] Look, the $1mil. in there (whatever it is for) is not that objectionable a subsidy given the current gov'l situatione here. The others on the list are MUCH larger amounts. While $1mil is worthy of consideration, let us address the $500mil items first.

You realize, MagiK, a lot of those items on the list undercut fight the war. Of course, my money dictates at least 50% of how I feel about the whole War on Terrorism anyway. At least in Iraq, the light at the end of the tunnel is an end to wasted money spent being babysitters.

P.S. - NOT trying to start a Circular Discussion(tm) topic here. I tried to limit my post to the money.

[antryg]

About 10 years ago I worked with a retired Navy captain who had been one of the chief inspectors. He used to share funny stories (finding all the money on an aircraft carrier after a compressed band of cash explodes) and point out examples of waste and corruption. Unfortunately the pattern of waste which he talked about was usually related to political interference. The list you presented is just a small example of political payoff that plagues us every day. It happens in the private sector as well. The difference is that a private company hits a ceiling on their stupidity. Nobody will lend them anymore money so they can't spend anymore. Our government just raises the roof on stupidity, I mean the budget.

yeah, I knew this was just a small...miniscule really, portion of the vast amount of waste that goes on in our government.

I also agree with TL that the Bigger $ amounts should be addressed first..but the single millions going to ridiculous things are the ones that annoy me the most it seems...like $750,000 to research why Eskimo's (Inuits) would need refrigerators.....some people.....or how about $500,000 to investigate the weaponization of frisbee's....