Wine Subsidy One Project Making Taxpayers Pour
November 30, 2016
Who says Christmas only comes once a year? According to Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.), taxpayers have been giving all year long. And thanks to his second "Federal Fumbles" report, he's showing Americans just how generous they were forced to be. Like last year's list, this one shows how badly taxpayers are getting burned -- and not just by the $1.3 million tanning bed PSAs (p. 18). In this edition, time flies -- and so does the money studying them (p. 9). There's panda-monium over the $2 million the NSF spent to study China's lovable bears (p. 14) -- but nothing's putting people on pines and needles like the USDA's Christmas tree tax (p. 88).
If you're looking for a distraction from the government's waste, try taking in a mute Shakespeare play (p. 106). (To speak or not to speak, that is the question.) And most people assumed we already had a federal soap opera (called Congress), but NIH burned $3 million producing a real one (p. 64). There are plenty of raisins to be upset over the USDA's prune promotion (p. 21), but taxpayers won't really be wining until they see the $3.5 million in vineyard grants. In Los Angeles, the local courthouse got $1 million to buy a painting, which they later cut into six pieces (p. 35). The mural of that story is that something should be cut all right -- but it isn't that picture!
And $2 million isn't anything to sneeze at, unless you're the NIH and you want to know if kids will eat food that's been coughed on (p. 9). If it's Medieval smells you're looking for, nobody nose how to raise a stink like the NEA and NEH! For a half-million dollars, they'll look the odor way (p. 19). Meanwhile, at the Smithsonian, a controversy is already brewing over the full-time job to survey beer's impact on American history (p. 105). If this list gives you more indigestion than gas station tofu (p. 7), Senator Lankford says you can do something about it. It may feel like Congress is cutting spending slower than a gender-specific glacier (p. 47), but let your members know you have a $200,000 Tanzanian bone to pick with how they're using your money (p. 12)!
"As we enter into a new year -- with a new president and new Congress-it is past time to focus on fixing the problems facing our nation... For me, the items listed in this book are a to-do list for the next year. They are examples of violations of the public's trust that must be prevented from happening again," Senator Lankford said. You can hear more about the government's $1,179 custom Snuggies, $250,000 traveling classrooms on prison life, and other projects on yesterday's "Washington Watch." Tune in below!
Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
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