Coburn unveils Stimulus Silliness
Via the Cato Institute we learn that the Senate’s often provocative fiscal watchdogs, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Senator John McCain of Arizona, have released a new 100 page report detailing some of the sadly goofy uses of stimulus funds. Some of the lowlights of your (and your children’s, and their children’s) tax dollars at play work include:
- “Almost Empty” Mall Awarded Energy Grant ($5 million)
- Water Pipeline to a Money-Losing Golf Course ($2.2 million)
- Grant to Fund Search for Fossils . . . In Argentina ($1.57 million)
- Bobber the Water Safety Dog Costumes ($21,116)
- Developing the Next Generation of Football Gloves ($150,000)
And so much more.
The always hilarious Norm points out that some of the projects lead to this being a “stimulus” in more ways than one:
The National Institute of Health (NIH) is using stimulus funds to pay for a year-long $219,000 study to follow female college students for a year to determine whether young women are more likely to ― “hookup” — the college equivalent of casual sex — after drinking alcohol. Researchers will recruit 500 female students prior to their first year of college and contact them monthly over the course of a year to document sexual hookups, noting when there is alcohol involved. It is part of the $7.4 billion the NIH received in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support ―scientific research.
Maybe with all that TARP money rolling back in U.S. Senator Mark Warner and his Dem cronies can set up yet another package to help me get a date….
