Problem Identified, Solution Needed
“The problem isn’t that we don’t know what the problem is, the problem is that we [members of Congress] don’t act,” Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) stated in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on January 9, 2014.
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) President Tom Schatz echoed Sen. Coburn’s comments in his testimony at the hearing. Schatz cited CAGW’s Prime Cuts, which, since fiscal year 1991, has identified 110,129 earmarks costing taxpayers $311 billion, with many of these catalogued in CAGW’s annual Congressional Pig Book. However, it took 20 years for Congress to take action to stem the tide of earmarks. Even after the current moratorium was established at the beginning of the 112th Congress, earmarks still exist, as does wasteful spending channeled through the normal budgetary process.
Sen. Coburn described several examples from his Wastebook 2013, which lists 100 examples of the federal government’s unnecessary, duplicative, and low-priority programs totaling $28 billion. In its fourth year of publication, the report targeted a $914,000 grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to the Popular Romance Project to “explore the fascinating, often contradictory origins and influence of popular romance as told in novels, films, comics, advice books, songs, and internet fan fiction, taking a global perspective – while looking back across time as far as the ancient Greeks.” While romance novels are often belittled by literary types, the industry generated more than $1.4 billion in 2012. Uncle Sam does not need to be involved in this love triangle; the Popular Romance Project should look to the private sector for funding.
The NEH also partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts to fund the documentary “Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle.” The $125,000 awarded is part of three federal grants totaling $825,000 over three years. As anyone who has gone to the movies in the past few years knows, comic books are big business. In 2012, comic book movie adaptations grossed $623 million in ticket sales.
The report also highlighted a $325,525 study by the National Institutes of Health that determined that wives would have happier marriages if, when arguing with their husbands, they calmed down faster. One imagines husbands would be best off not mentioning Uncle Sam’s advice the next time they find themselves in a row with their wife.
Sen. Coburn’s report detailed questionable decisions by the Department of Defense (DOD). One DOD program distributed $82.5 million in surplus Mine Resistant Ambush Protect (MRAP) tactical vehicles to law enforcement in 165 communities. Equipped with machine gun turrets, bulletproof glass, and armored siding, the vehicles were allocated to dozens of rural and sparsely populated regions. That means law enforcement agencies in Bates County Missouri (population 16,702) and High Springs, Florida (population 5,494) are now fitted with the some of the same military-grade equipment employed by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The MRAPs can be used “to deliver shock and awe while serving warrants,” although the Warren County, New York sheriff declared that his vehicle would probably “spend most of the time in a heated garage.”
The DOD also spent $29 million for the Army National Guard to sponsor NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the 2013 season, as part of a five-year, $136 million deal. Unfortunately, out of the 24,800 individuals who attempted to join the National Guard because of the sponsorship, just 20 were fit for military service and zero enlisted. As far as return on investments goes, that is as bad as it gets. Perhaps the National Guard’s sponsorship for Earnhardt’s 2014 season will be more productive, but taxpayers shouldn’t hold their breath.
Finally, the report details a $3 million program created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which allows its employees to take a seminar on how Congress works. With the 113th Congress on pace to have the least productive session in history, here is the short version of the seminar: not very well.
As Sen. Coburn stated in his testimony and makes clear in this report, the problem has been identified. Now it is up to elected officials to act on the many recommendations that can reduce government waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. However, if past performance is any indicator, next year’s version of Wastebook will likely be just as thick.
