Take a look at U.S. government spending and you will find a great deal of waste built into government projects. Approach the debt limit, and our elected officials scramble to figure out how to keep the government open for business. In every one of those negotiations, the topics of revenue and expenses inevitably swell. One thing has been obvious for many years now: politicians love to spend our tax dollars — and to keep spending.
The disease is not limited to one party over the other. Across the eight years under George W. Bush, gross domestic product grew by about 15 percent — while national spending grew by a whopping 57 percent. Under President Barack Obama, GDP growth averaged 1.53 percent per year, and spending exploded to the point where, in five years, the national debt swelled from $11 trillion to almost $17 trillion. Both parties, in other words, own the loose purse strings creating all kinds of economic headwinds for the U.S.
A key player in the coming negotiations and budgeting process — if we ever get a budget again; Congress has not approved one since Mr. Obama took office — will be Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Love her or hate her, she is always good for some unintentional comic relief. Famously stating that the national health-care law would have to be passed in order for anyone to find out what was actually in the bill will be a tough one to beat — but she is trying.
So it seemed amusing to look at some of the items that she — and many others in our capital — feel are too important to cut out of the budget.
Spent about every four years to subsidize parties at the political conventions.
Agricultural department funding for an internship program. The program hired one full-time intern.
Paid in total for federal employees to upgrade their flights to business class.
Spent by the IRS on a film parody of Star Trek and a film parody of Gilligan’s Island.
Given by the National Institutes of Health to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston to study why “three-quarters” of lesbians in the United States are overweight and why most gay males are not.
Of federal money spent during 2012 on a promotional tour for the Alabama Watermelon Queen.
Spent by the U.S. government “to promote specialty hair and beauty products for cats and dogs” in a single year.
Spent over the past 15 years on hair care services for the U.S. Senate.
Spent to teach Moroccans how to design and make pottery in 2012.
Of U.S. taxpayer money actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes in Michigan.
The hotel bill for one night in Paris, when Vice President Joe Biden and his staff stopped over back in February.
Spent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to encourage Americans to eat caviar produced in Idaho.
Spent by the National Institutes of Health on a study seeking to figure out, once and for all, why chimpanzees throw poop.
Spent by the federal government to buy iPads for kindergarten students in Maine.
Spent by the U.S. government on “a tattoo removal program” in Mission Hills, Calif.
Just under a million dollars spent in one year posting snippets of poetry in zoos around the country.
Spent by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research on a study that concluded the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers.
Spent by the federal government to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees and poinsettias.