30 Stupid Things The Government Is Spending Money On
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If you want to get paid for doing something stupid, just turn to the U.S. government. The U.S. government is paying researchers to play video games, it is paying researchers to study the effects of cocaine on Japanese quail and it has spent millions of dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly. The amount of money that the government wastes is absolutely horrifying. Do you remember all of that political wrangling over the debt ceiling deal last year? Do you remember how our politicians told us that there were cutting spending as much as they possibly could? Well, it was all a giant lie. As you will see below, the U.S. government is spending money on some of the most stupid things imaginable. What makes all of this even worse is that we are going into enormous amounts of debt in order to pay for all of this. We are borrowing billions of dollars a day in order to pay for stupid stuff that no government on earth should ever be paying for. Trust me, you are going to find it hard to believe some of the stuff in this list. It is almost inconceivable what our politicians are doing with our tax dollars.
The following are 30 incredibly stupid things that the federal government is spending money on….
#1 The U.S. government is spending $750,000 on a new soccer field for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.
#2 The Obama administration plans to spend between 16 and 20 million dollars helping students from Indonesia get master’s degrees.
#3 If you can believe it, the U.S. government has spent $175,587 “to determine if cocaine makes Japanese quail engage in sexually risky behavior”.
#4 The U.S. government spent $200,000 on “a tattoo removal program” in Mission Hills, California.
#5 The federal government has shelled out $3 million to researchers at the University of California at Irvine to fund their research on video games such as World of Warcraft. Wouldn’t we all love to have a “research job” like that?
#6 The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend $500 million on a program that will, among other things, seek to solve the problem of 5-year-old children that “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom.
#7 Fannie Mae is about to ask the federal government for another $4.6 billion bailout, and it will almost certainly get it.
#8 The federal government once spent 30 million dollars on a program that was designed to help Pakistani farmers produce more mangos.
#9 The U.S. Department of Agriculture once gave researchers at the University of New Hampshire $700,000 to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.
#10 According to USA Today, 13 different government agencies “fund 209 different science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programs — and 173 of those programs overlap with at least one other program.”
#11 A total of $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.
#12 China lends us more money than any other foreign nation, but that didn’t stop our government from spending 17.8 million dollars on social and environmental programs for China.
#13 The U.S. government once spent 2.6 million dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly.
#14 One professor at Stanford University was given $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love.
#15 The U.S. Postal Service spent $13,500 on a single dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.
#16 The National Science Foundation once spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians “gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions”.
#17 A total of $1.8 million was spent on a “museum of neon signs” in Las Vegas, Nevada.
#18 The federal government spends 25 billion dollars a year maintaining federal buildings that are either unused or totally vacant.
#19 U.S. farmers are given a total of $2 billion each year for not farming their land.
#20 The U.S. government handed one Tennessee library $5,000 for the purpose of hosting a series of video game parties.
#21 A few years ago the government spent $123,050 on a Mother’s Day Shrine in Grafton, West Virginia. It turns out that Grafton only has a population of a little more than 5,000 people.
#22 One professor at Dartmouth University was given $137,530 to create a “recession-themed” video game entitled “Layoff”.
#23 According to the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. military spent “$998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida”.
#24 The U.S. Department of Agriculture once shelled out $30,000 to a group of farmers to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight “haycations”.
#25 The National Institutes of Health paid researchers $400,000 to find out why gay men in Argentina engage in risky sexual behavior when they are drunk.
#26 The National Institutes of Health also once spent $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.
#27 The National Institutes of Health loves to spend our tax money on really bizarre things. The NIH once spent $800,000 in “stimulus funds” to study the impact of a “genital-washing program” on men in South Africa.
#28 According to the Washington Post, 1,271 different government organizations work on government programs related to counterterrorism and homeland security.
#29 The U.S. government spent $100,000 on a “Celebrity Chef Fruit Promotion Road Show in Indonesia”.
#30 The feds once gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 “to paint a Chinook salmon” on the side of a Boeing 737.
How in the world can our government be so foolish?
Anyone that claims that there is not a lot of stuff that can be cut out of the federal budget is lying to you.
All of this crazy spending is going to get us into a massive amount of trouble eventually. Already, on a per capita basis the U.S. national debt is worse than the national debts of Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
We have accumulated the biggest debt in the history of the world and we are adding to it at a rate of about 150 million dollars an hour.
Our politicians strut around as if they are the smartest and wisest leaders in the history of the world, but the truth is that someday people will look back in horror at the decline of our once great society.
The federal government needs to stop spending so much money on stupid things and needs to stop pushing our national debt to nightmarish new levels.
Unfortunately, the corruption in Washington D.C. is so deep and so pervasive that it is going to be almost impossible to turn it around.
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12:21 pm
this is just one of the many tactics our fearless leader (OBOZO) is using to take our country down
9:44 pm
Actually this has nothing to do with president commie, this stuff happens no matter whos in office. The President and the whole voting process in general are just forms of control. The zionists are the ones pulling the strings.
12:26 pm
How about a program on how to educate real Americans to vote for real America loving folks for leadership?
Another good program would be one which educates Americans on how not to elect such idiots as we have now in office. I would bet Obama was one of those 5 year old who could not sit still. Of course, growing up in Kenya, the setting may not have been conducive to sitting.
The sad thing about these facts is that most of the folks reelecting the same brain dead weiner/clinton/obama types are on the dole thanks to the largesse of these slave mongers. They love to keep folks unaware of their plans and today's youngsters and college students are in lock step with their plan to make more slaves. I weep for my country.
12:27 pm
What can you expect from the Retarded Imbeciles in the government ?????????????
12:29 pm
If my comment must be approved by the site admins before it will appear publicly ;
just go to hell.
12:30 pm
Kiss my ass you idiots. Why are you here????????
12:31 pm
Why are you here???????????????
12:37 pm
the us gov. has got to be the absolute dumest gov on earth, the so called politians are the worst greedest & liars of people on earth. dc needs to be shut down completely and started over with honesty. or there is no hope for the american people. the electors you and i need are butts kicked good and hard to allow this corruption to continue.
11:36 pm
it’s dumbest, not dumest
it’s so-called, not so called
it’s greediest, not greedest
I think you mean: “the greediest and most dishonest people,” not “the worst greedest & liars of”
I think you mean: “It needs to be shut down,” not “do needs to be shut down”
“the electors you and i need are butts…..” just doesn’t make any sense at all
Thanks for your contribution, now put that jacket with the overlong arms back on and take your medication…..
12:45 pm
I am a free man in a free Nation and what about you ?????????????
12:45 pm
S.S.D.D.
5:54 pm
You and I won't be free for much longer; we already have the dictator in office.
2:06 pm
I heard the same thing said about Bush.. and Clinton.. And Bush I.. and Reagan.. Don't you get it?? it has nothing to do with who's President.. its the system, the politicians, congress.. One man did not cause this.. One man is not to blame for all our problems today, that all the countries of the world are facing.. Obama is not to blame.. far from it..
7:36 pm
i would like to be there as a man free man too!
12:52 pm
With reports like this and other stupid programs, I'm coming to believe political assassination is a valuable tool. too infrequently used.
12:53 pm
Wonderful article; unfortunately it takes a lot of this spending by the government completely out of context to make the author's point, and a lot of this spending was in the past and most probably done by Republican Presidents!
9:49 pm
you're a moron it doesnt matter whos in the office repub or dem. The only people with any real power in this country are the international zionist bankers. The quibbling between the right and left is just another way to keep us from really paying attention, its a form of control just like television. We can try to find out the real truth or we can always just blame Bush.
5:56 pm
You're just another ID-DEE-OT ; who head is too far up his ass.
5:26 pm
What a stupid ASSumtion you made! Shows your ignorance!
1:58 pm
While a good article for research into PAST expenditures, it would have been more in line with the TITLE of the article to detail ONLY CURRENT, ONGOING expenditures and funding,,, Rather misleading, really, but still a classic example of governmental insanity~!
2:16 pm
Although there was a great outcry regarding "earmarks" several years ago, they are the sources of these types of projects. Some go to universities in selected states, others to pet institutes or projects in the legislator's hometown or district, others to general "block grants" where supposedly state and local governments are to choose the "best use" of funds. Very few cities, towns or counties are interested in giving money back. (end of part 1 of message).
2:17 pm
Part 2 of message. The TARP bailout failed to include federal officials on the boards of major banking corporations that could have prevented the bonuses, and made sure that no acquistions of smaller banks occurred. But as I remember, the Republicans made such a fuss about "government seizure" of the banking system that these excesses proceeded. The amount of money loaned to the banks was basically decided in secret meetings between the Secretary of the Treasury and the banks, who certainly didn't want their hands tied in acceptance of funds. Did anyone expect bankers to be "transparent"? We have two major parties that have no real opposition to the financial interests, as they long ago abandoned the common good. The "greening" of America has nothing to do with environmentalism; it is related to the color of our currency.
4:16 pm
These anomalies will continue unntil the American public realizes that we are dealing not with a federal givernment but two governments, one for DC ,as in national government and its legislature and the other for the territories of the United States. This bifucated government has been promoted by the smart guys to obfuscate the legality of our national "givernment:" and allowed by our states so long as they get their share of the loot involved. This deliberate misuse of two jurisdictions is behind the corruption of our American ideals. The boys in the know shiv the rest of us with illegal laws, rules and regulations and Congress is their willing shill! That is why so many of our former reps stay around Washington to make sure their pay-offs continue after their defeat or "retirement".
No election can change this arrangement, not when the candidates are ex Congress people or state governors.
The End of America did not happen in just the last few years but was carefully set up to disappear for the last 150 years. The Civil War set the stage and we have all been the audience to the play ever since!
9:52 pm
Amen Alice, but do you have the guts to call out these traitors by name??? I'll give you a hint: They have been expelled from every great civilization on Earth at one time or another.
5:34 pm
This is incomprehensible. Are they items that actually get voted for? Hidden in bills? By definition most cannot be earmarks. Are these items consigned by Presidential Departments? Unbelievable.
12:37 am
An interesting dialogue is worth comment. I believe that it’s best to write more on this matter, it won’t be a taboo topic but usually people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers
2:20 am
When do you get it? There is no government by the people for the people. Unless you define people as being members of governments (all levels) and all the organisations that are fed by these governments. All the others are considered sheeple.
8:31 am
Non of these have anything to do with President Barack Hussein Obama. The writer and listener seems to have an insidious agenda; it is obvious. The point is, simple statements in the listing are made without the correct underlying backstory. To continually post nonsense to promote a political agenda is going to go back and bite a lot of people. Whoever made this list up is using soundbites to look like the truth. The truth is more elegant.
5:59 pm
By the time all the sheeple realize this, the U.S. will no longer be a country.
11:27 pm
Until the citizens of the U.S. vote in term limits for all elected officials the corruption will not stop. These people are no different than you and I, they want something for doing nothing and want to look great getting it.
4:49 am
Not all of these are as foolish as they seem at first glance though a large number of them certainly are.
1. Paying for advanced degrees for indonesians.. All the money is then spent on US universities since that is where they are sponsored to come. In addition with the majority actually being muslim, hat better way to ensure their future leaders are not anti-american than giving them an American oriented education and thus exposing them to the workings of a proper democracy?
2. Washing of genitals… sounds crazy but actually the study showed that amazingly washing immediately after sex actually does help in lowering the risk of transmission of the HIV ( AIDS) virus
3.The soccer field, even detainees need exercise especially since many of them have yet to even see the inside of a court room.
4. There was an actual scientific basis to the study concerning Japanese Quail. Quoting from the NIH website itself: The present experiment utilized an avian model to study discriminative learning and the role of Pavlovian conditioning in behavioral sensitization. The use of avian models to investigate drug effects may have additional relevance to human drug abuse because these studies involve using visual cues that may become conditioned to later elicit craving. Several studies have demonstrated that drug cues may become associated with a drug state through Pavlovian conditioning and that, in the absence of the drug, these cues may come to elicit conditioned physiological and subjective responses. These responses may initiate craving and trigger relapse" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC23232…
This was meant to study a specific effect and see how it applies to humans… unless you really wanted them to use humans as test subject.
5. Even the study of researching world of war craft was studying effects of video game addiction which is a serious problem in certain age groups currently.
6. May God one day give you a child with ADHD then you will thank the govt for spending some money researching how to deal with kids who have problems sitting still..
7. The money spent on researching cows and methane gas production gave rise to successful alternative energy projects like this one: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/business/busine…
8. Would you like for the federal govt to leave the buildings to fall into disrepair and become a hazard and eye sore? or perhaps to sell them off and then have to buy them back from private individuals later when the space is needed.
There are lots more examples from your list but this was what I could put together quickly as a rebuttal. Some expenditures are obviously foolish but rather than just take this list as is, do take some time and read about the rationae for some of these decisions. Not all of them as are wacky as they seem on first reading or as one liners in a posting like this.
8:55 am
How about spending some on how to force the media to report the TRUTH! Now that would be worth some bucks!