Talking Points on the Economy: Boondoggles #6
(A publication of The National Center for Public Policy Research)
Government Management Horror Stories
The federal government's mismanagement of its own business could
cost taxpayers dearly. Among the worst mismanagement horror stories:
According to the General Services Administration, courthouse construction
costs are excessive. The new $218 million federal courthouse in
Boston, for example, will have over $750,000 in artwork and a
$450,000 floating marina. Its out-of-the-way location will cost
another $278 million for an extension of Boston's transit line.
A federal courthouse in Phoenix was over-built by 38,441 feet,
costing an extra $9 million and an additional $1 million in yearly
maintenance.
Auditors of the Department of Defense found that 85 of 190 contracts
were not competitively awarded. During one six-month period in
1993, the General Accounting Office found that $305 million out
of $392 million in checks issued by the Defense Finance Accounting
Service had been returned due to contract overpayment. Almost
all the overpayments were detected by the contractors, not the
federal government.
In April 1993, the Office of the Inspector General discovered
that the National Weather Service was paying over $5,000 for a
spare part worth just $500, up to $15,000 for another that retailed
for $2,600, and about $3,000 for a third that cost $250.
In recent years, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has been criticized
by government auditors for having accounting systems that are
"totally unreliable." Case in point: The BIA once assessed
the value of three chain saws at $99 million each, one television
at $96 million, and two typewriters at $119 million. The BIA had
overstated its inventory by $538 million.
The Environmental Protection Agency spends nearly 40 percent of
its budget on administration and management. In ten years, only
80 of 1,275 hazardous waste Superfund sites have been cleaned
up. One Superfund contractor charged EPA $2.3 million for tickets
to sporting events, alcohol at company parties, and travel by
non-employee spouses of company personnel.
Information from "Danger: Risky Business," Citizens
Against Government Waste (Washington, DC) September, 1994.
Issue Date: November 7, 1994
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on the Economy: Boondoggles Index
Talking Points on the Economy: Boondoggles #5
(A publication of The National Center for Public Policy Research)
Pork from the 103rd Congress
Congress approved an estimated $186 billion in pork and wasteful
projects in 1994. When one considers the 1994 Earthquake Relief
Bill, its easy to see how: The bill grew to a hefty $11 billion,
$4.8 higher than President Clinton's request, as lawmakers cynically
took advantage of human suffering to fund their own pet projects.
Among the "earthquake relief" programs funded by Congress:
$122 million for cooperative space ventures with Russia; $40 million
for NASA's "Spacehab" module; $20 million for 500 new
employees at an FBI fingerprint facility in West Virginia; $10
million to convert a post office into a train station in New York;
$4.5 million for high-speed rail research; and $1.3 million for
two sugar mill communities in Hawaii. Other wasteful programs
approved by the 103rd Congress include:
* $1.1 million for a Plant Stress Lab at Texas Tech University.
* $11.5 million for power plant modernization at the soon-to-be-closed
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
$58 million to bail out millionaire New York Yankee owner George
Steinbrenner's American Shipbuilding Company in Tampa, Florida.
* $25 million for an Arctic region supercomputer at the University
of Alaska to study how to trap energy from the aurora borealis.
* $2 million for the restoration of the Liberty Theater and Lucas
Theater, both in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia.
* $1.5 million for a National Pig Research Facility in Iowa.
* $1 million for the Palmer Chiropractic School in Davenport,
Iowa.
* $600,000 to ease fish migration up the Sacramento River, California.
Information from "Critical Waste Issues and Solutions,"
Citizens Against Government Waste (Washington, DC) September 1994
Issue Date: November 4, 1994
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on the Economy: Boondoggles Index
Talking Points on the Economy: Boondoggles
#4
(A publication of The National Center for Public Policy Research)
Record Tax Hike Funds Pork Barrel Spending
1990's Budget Summit Agreement, which included a record-breaking
tax hike, was supposed to reduce the federal budget deficit and
help stabilize the economy. Instead, both have further deteriorated--the
deficit is soaring, projected to hit $400 billion in 1993, and
the number of jobless in the U.S. is at its highest level since
1983. But this hasn't stopped Members of Congress from continued
pork-barrel spending, adding more to the average American's burden.
To follow are just a few examples of "pork" procured
by Congress in the one-year period following the tax hike:
* Senator Quentin Burdick (D-ND) snagged $4.4 million for a physical
fitness center at North Dakota's Grand Forks Air Base (despite
military down-sizing) and an additional $800,000 for highway beautification
around that whopping town of 44,000 people. Not a bad haul --
between these two projects alone, residents of Grand Forks will
enjoy over $118 in befits per capita at the expense of taxpayers
throughout the country.
* Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR) managed to get $5 million appropriated
to fund 1992 actitivities relating to 1990's "Salmon Summit,"
a meeting of businessmen, power companies and Indieans in the
Pacific Northwest to discuss the plight of the endangered Snake
River Sockeye Salmon.
* Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) wrangled $148.5 million for a highway
project in his home state to "demonstrate methods of eliminating
traffic congestion and to promote economic benefits." With
just 88 people per square mile in West Virginia (compared to,
for example, 1,027 in New Jersey and 748 in Massachusetts) it's
not clear what "traffic congestion," this program is
intended to help alleviate. Indeed, West Virginia's population
density is much closer to that of Kentucky (94 people per square
mile) and Washington (66 pers square mile), states not normally
associated with traffic jams.
* Representative Joseph McDade (R-PA) procured $10 million for
Immaculate Heart of Mary nuns at Marywood College in Scranton,
Pennsylvania to study stress in military families.
Information from 1990 Information Please Almanac (Houghton Mifflin
Company, Boston); and "1992 Congression Pig Book Summary,"
Council of Citizens Against Government Waste (Washington, D.C.)
Issue Date: March 3, 1992
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on the Economy: Boondoggles Index
Talking Points on the Economy: Boondoggles
#3
(A publication of The National Center for Public Policy Research)
Time for Another Tea Party
In 1774, John Hancock said: "We shall... free ourselves from
those unmannerly pillagers who impudently tell us that they are
licensed by an act of Parliament to thrust their dirty hands into
the pocket of every American." But did we? Or did we simply
trade "the dirty hands of Parliament" for the "dirty
hands of Congress"?
Since 1962, federal tax collections have increased by over 222%
after inflation, leaving Americans with less disposable income.
While average Americans have made tremendous sacrifices, the same
can not be said of Members of Congress: On average, U.S. Senators
and U.S. Representatives take $3.5 million and $1 million, respectively,
in congressional perks each year - that's in addition to their
salaries of close to $130,000.
Among the congressional perks:
* Members of Congress continue to receive a $3,000 tax deduction
for the cost of maintaining their Washington homes even though
they voted themselves a 51% pay hike in 1989 - in theory - to
help defray such expenses.
* Members receive free medical and dental care and prescription
medicines.
* When travelling, Members of Congress are entitled to meals,
liquor, hotel, and taxicab services at government expense. They
are also permitted automobile reimbursements and the use of military
aircraft. Whether travelling or at home, Members are entitled
to the use of military facilities and commissaries, and have access
to golf, tennis and other recreational facilities for themselves
and their families.
* Members of Congress get special discounts at government-owned
vacation cabins and homes at a variety of locations, including
exotic Caribbean islands.
* Members and their staffs have access to discount shopping in
low-cost House and Senate stores - stores that do not charge sales
tax. Americans pay over $1 million per year to finance these stores,
but are not permitted to shop there.
* Twelve leaders of Congress have a special expense account totalling
$141,000. They are not required to account for expenditures from
this fund.
Information from National Center for Public Policy Research
National Policy Analysis paper No. 75 by Amy Moritz
Issue Date: February 14, 1992
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on the Economy: Boondoggles Index
Talking Points on the Economy: Boondoggles
#2
(A publication of The National Center for Public Policy Research)
Government Junkets
Thirty-three House members, spouses and aides spent five days
and four nights in Barbados in April 1990, at an estimated cost
to the American taxpayer of $42,000. Congressman Dan Rostenkowski
(D-IL), who chairs the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee,
led the delegation. According to ABC news' "Prime Time"
live, the lawmakers spent only seven hours of the five-day trip
on official business and the rest of the time on leisure activities.
Among the expenses picked up by the taxpayer: "$689 worth
of beer, Chevas Regal scotch, ... and liqueurs for the delegation's
personal consumption"; and golf course "green fees."
A delegation of 100 people, including members of Congress, their
spouses and staffers, were to attend the prestigious Paris international
airshow this June at an estimated cost of $1 million. The trip
was cancelled, but only after the junket was exposed in the press.
In March, Representative Les Aspin (D-WI), chairman of the House
Armed Services Committee, began an 11-day taxpayer-funded trip
through the Middle East accompanied by his girlfriend. He and
his girlfriend flew to the region aboard a C-20 jet (the same
type of military aircraft used by White House Chief of Staff John
Sununu), costing close to $4,000 an hour to operate.
House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL) took a week-long
trip to Czechoslovakia, Switzerland and Poland with his wife and
daughter in June 1990. They flew aboard a C-137 jet, which flies
with an 11-person crew and costs between $7,100 and $10,200 per
hour to run.
White House Chief of Staff John Sununu took 77 trips on military
planes during his first 27 months in office, costing over $600,000.
Among Sununu's trips: two visits to Boston for dentist appointments
(for which he reimbursed the government only $900 of the $14,000
tab); a trip to Florida to see his parents; and two trips to ski
resorts.
Information from Washington Times (4/24/91, 5/3/91 and 5/6/91),
the Washington Post (5/3/91) and Human Events (11/10/90).
Issue Date: June 20, 1991
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on the Economy: Boondoggles Index
Talking Points on the Economy: Boondoggles
#1
(A publication of The National Center for Public Policy Research)
Painless Cuts Congress Ignored
Last fall, President Bush and Members of Congress approved a budget
that included over $140 billion in new taxes over a five-year
period. Congressional leaders argued that meaningful reductions
in the federal budget deficit would be impossible without new
revenues. But a glance at some of the items included in that budget
puts that claim in doubt:
* $326 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (supports
television stations most people only see when changing channels).
* $1.5 billion for the Roosevelt-era Rural Electrification Administration's
loan program. After over four decades, surely the REA has fulfilled
its mission of electrifying rural America. If it hasn't, it should
be abolished for gross inefficiency anyway.
* $175 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, which
provided funds for such "works of art as "Piss Pope,"
and image of Pope John Paul II submerged in urine.
* $2.8 million for wood utilization research.
* $274 million for the Small Business Administration (which secured
loans for only.12 percent of the nation's 19 million small businesses).
* $326.9 million for the Bonneville Power Administration.
* $3.8 million for a Poultry Center of Excellence in Arkansas
(taxpayers are sure to call "foul!")
* $3.6 million for an urban gardening program.
* $337.4 million for the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Fund
(President Bush had originally proposed termination of this program).
* $327 million for the Legal Services Corporation.
* $3.3 million for swine health protection (talk about pork barrel
spending).
* $2.5 billion in agricultural credits to the Soviet Union. Although
this item was not in last fall's budget, the taxpayers are nonetheless
liable.
Information on the budget from Heritage Foundation Backgrounder
No. 795 by Scott Hodge and Heritatge Foundation Backgrounder No.
803 by Robert Knight.
Issue Date: June 14, 1991
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