Wasteful Federal Spending in 2016 Included Purchases of Embroidered Snuggies

They may be comfortable but wasting tax dollars is not very comforting.

11.28.2016

It’s nearing the end of another year, and that means it’s time to check in on the wasteful spending habits of the federal government and as usual, it definitely disappoints.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford is carrying the torch for retired Sen. Tom Coburn’s annual Wastebook with his second installment of “Federal Fumbles” and boy, did he find some doozies this year. Below is a partial listing of some of the dumbest wastes of taxpayer dollars in 2016, particularly from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

The NSF gave a $1.8 million grant to a university that used some of the money to purchase embroidered Snuggies.
It spent $315,000 on a study to find out if Americans view the court system as fair.
It spent $200,000 for academics to study the average diet of Tanzanians in the 1500s.
It spent $400,000 (so far) studying how Obamacare affects jobs.
And the NEA spent $10,000 just to determine if performing Shakespeare without uttering his words qualifies as doing Shakespeare.

“Our current spending habits are unsustainable and irresponsible,” Sen. Lankford wrote in his report which noted at least 100 areas where the feds are spending too much.

Meanwhile, the NSF doesn’t believe it has done anything foolish with the hard-earned cash of American citizens. The agency defended itself in a responsive statement:

“NSF supports cutting-edge research projects — many of which serve as bellwethers for solutions to the myriad complex issues facing society. NSF programs also traditionally integrate research and education, speeding innovation excellence through hands-on learning to train our next generation of researchers and innovators.”

Lankford has advised the executive branch and Congress to pay more attention to how federal dollars are dispensed included, as noted by The Washington Times, the Obama administration handing over nearly $2 billion to Iran for releasing American hostages and over $750 million to Central America in hopes that would stave off the influx of illegal immigrants from its countries.

In all, the federal government gave $617 billion in grants in 2015. Lankford supports the Grant Reform and New Transparency Act (GRANT), which he argues would allow Americans better access to understanding how the government grants money and to whom.