With all the hoopla of the Congress' work on the debt ceiling talks, I read this. This article, so I'm told [I actually rec'd this from an email from a family member], is from the
Heritage Foundation. It's long, but worth reading so when the election time comes around, you'll be more aware of the crookedness that goes on in our government and vote these people out of office......
It's worth reading if you care about your country and lifestyle!!
The federal government made at least
$72 billion in improper payments in 2008.
Washington spends
$92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.
Washington spends
$25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.
Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them -- costing taxpayers a total of
$123 billion annually -- fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.
The Congressional Budget Office published a "Budget Options" series identifying more than
$100 billion in potential spending cuts.
Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.
Washington will spend
$2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.
A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent
$13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, including "over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold." The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.
Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
The Securities and Exchange Commission spent
$3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
The Pentagon recently 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.
Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of
$200,000.
Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than
$60 billion annually.
A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined
$295 billion in cost overruns.
The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers
$146 million annually in flight upgrades.
Washington will spend
$126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted
$20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.
Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year's 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.
The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.
The Federal Communications Commission spent
$350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.
Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines -- plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars. More than
$13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another
$7.8 billion cannot be accounted for. Fraud related to
Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top
$2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, "Girls Gone Wild" videos, and at least one sex change operation.
Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.
Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines
$500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737. The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) -- but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department's budget.
Washington has spent
$3 billion re-sanding beaches -- even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.
A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the
$2.5 billion in "stimulus" funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.
The Defense Department wasted
$100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.
Washington spends
$60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.
Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling, $69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes. Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.
Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.
Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to
$50,000 apiece.
The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger
$43 million in additional federal funds.
Suburban families are receiving large farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards -- subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want.
Congress appropriated
$20 million for "commemoration of success" celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and
$230 for a beer brewing kit.
Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a
$2 billion taxpayer cost.
North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in "stimulus" funds for a project that its mayor described as "a long way from the top priority."
The National Institutes of Health spends
$1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use. Congress recently spent
$2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.
Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers -- the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.
Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients. Audits showed
$34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant
waste, fraud, and abuse. Washington recently spent
$1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia. The Advanced Technology Program spends $
150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies. Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.
The Conservation Reserve program
pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land. The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans' personal data. As mentioned in the first comment rec'd on this, remember....HISTORICALLY, it's NOT at the fault of the president[s]---past or present or even future....it's 95-99% CONGRESS and other government agencies. READ it clearly.
Not much going on in our household this week. Same ol' same ol'!! About all that got done was a small amount of crocheting time, keeping up with the watering to stave off having dead plants from the drought conditions, laundry...just regular household chores. It's been a lazy week. 
We did drive out to the beaches before the county closed all access roads for the 'impending' storm from Friday's fiasco. Not much going on there either. Tons of debris on the shores that washed in from the Gulf waters from the swifter than normal currents...that's about it happening on the island. Being that it was the beginning of the weekend and all, and the fact we didn't leave until after all the yard statuary and lawn furniture was stored in the garage, early afternoon...the beaches were busy with revelers and fun times. 
Just like there was no threat of a storm at all. Oh the messy beaches tho. While I walked over the sand and waded the surf, there was a little boy from Montana, on vacation here, that was just having a time of his life. He was about 6 or 7 I'm guessing....first time to see the 'ocean'. His parents were near me as I walked by...they said this was his birthday gift. Nice. 
Another older couple was out walking their little dogs. Two chihuahuas [very popular breed here in South Texas] ---the two were fascinated by the large, huge, tree that washed ashore. I got verbal permission to post their picture here---funny thing is tho, when the two were climbing around the trunk...a good sized wave came in. Well, when I think about it, maybe it wasn't funny----if they weren't on leashes, they would have been washed out into the swift currents and lost. They were helped back onto safer ground by the masters' leashes!!! Oh, and the little black poochie wasn't marking his territory like it looks---just jumping down after climbing atop the trunk; sniffin' it all out. As you can see, by these two photos above the dog photo...about the only thing that came here from the storm was trees and dark, heavy skies. The temperatures here on the island were about 10 degrees difference than what we experienced in the city tho....a nice breeze off the water too. So, we start over---watering from the sprinkler system, waiting for some relief in this summery inferno. There are a couple more storm systems in the Caribbean....maybe they'll head our way. I really don't want anything that is constructurally damaging from any storms....I wouldn't wish that on anyone. But it would be nice to get something soon. It's depressing to say the least. We'll just keep an eye on the tropics and hope that soon the drought will be over.
