Issues
Mindless Waste Of Your Tax Dollars
Today we give yet another Golden Fleece Award for government waste to our pals at the National Institutes of Health. This time for scorching $102,200,000 on the study of “Mindfulness Meditation” (MM), a “New Age kind of meditation that focuses on the present moment non-judgmentally” – whatever that means.
Among the plagues whose cure may be sped along by MM: automatic eating, stress in mice, PMS, bipolar disorder and prisoner recidivism, to name just a few.
We’re not afraid to judge this nonsense as a big load of (insert your favorite word here). And the only thing that’s being “sped along” is the utter waste of your tax dollars.
Feds Send $137 Billion Up In Smoke
This week’s Golden Fleece Award for government waste goes to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, which scorched $137 billion dollars you worked for by making improper payments.
These blown bucks amounted to 9.8% of total Medicare payments and $12 billion over projections. Just ask yourselves – “What kind of flaming incompetents project payment errors of $125 billion?”
We figure when Progressives reach their Nirvana of single payer health care, $137 billion will be just a rounding error in their “improper payment” line item.
Audit Reveals Portland Agency Mismanagement
Today’s Golden Fleece award for government waste of your money goes to Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement (“PONI”).
A recent audit revealed PONI (the name says it all) doesn’t require annual plans or success metrics from recipients of its $4.8 million worth of grants.
Frankly, we think the whole thing is one big Golden Fleece slopping up at the public trough.
Could It Have Anything To Do With Money?
Today we present our Golden Fleece Award for government waste of your money to the National Science Foundation, which, according to Sen. Jeff Flake, scorched $276,000 of bucks you worked for to figure out why unattractive people end up dating good looking guys or gals.
Would You Spend $74 Million To Save 2 Seconds?
Of course not – it’s your money. But it didn’t bother Seattle’s government for a second – it was taxpayers’ bucks.
The “Mercer corridor” on I-5 has always been a mess. But after spending $74 million to relieve traffic congestion it’s now a very expensive mess. For all that money, they saved commuters 2 seconds.
Now they’re going to blow another $1 million for better traffic light timing that even they admit won’t do much to help.
For this magnificent waste of taxpayer dollars they earn our prestigious Golden Fleece Award.
ODOT Strikes Again: 7 Years Late & $230 Million Over Budget!
The next time the Oregon Dept. of Transportation (ODOT) whines for your tax dollars to repair our “crumbling infrastructure” ask what they could have done with the $365 million they plowed into a 10 mile stretch of Route 20 that connects Pioneer Mountain to Eddyville.
Next ask how they managed to toss $162 million to a contractor before firing him for doing lousy work on this stretch of pavement one Oregon Transportation Commissioner labeled a “low usage road…”
We think “low usage” applies to ODOT’s collective brain. But we do hope they treasure our coveted Golden Fleece Award for government waste.
Why The Fuss? It Was Only $300 Million
According to an independent audit commissioned by the Oregon Secretary of State, “The state [through its Business Energy Tax Credit program] gave away more than $300 million in tax credits to projects that showed shoddy bookkeeping, direct conflicts of interest or for projects that never got off the ground.”
For this magnificent waste of your tax dollars these green geniuses capture this week’s Golden Fleece Award.
Say What?
“This study seeks to uncover whether investments in makerspaces are supporting the development of another institution of privilege, exclusion, and inequity.” – The Wall Street Journal
This week’s Golden Fleece Award for government waste goes to our pals at the National Science Foundation, which tossed $599,905 dollars you worked for to Arizona State University to study whatever this gobbledygook is.
If they’re really looking for “investments,” might we suggest a decent mutual fund?
$33,000 Fleecing Of Hillsboro Taxpayers
It was only $33,000, but it was money Hillsboro taxpayers worked for.
The fleecing started when Hillsboro’s officials sent $33,000 to InterCom, a Newport Beach, CA marketing outfit, to cook up a snappy new name for a south Hillsboro housing development.
After what we suspect were a dozen late night pizza and beer blowouts masquerading as “strategy sessions,” InterCom’s millennial MBA’s came up with “Hillsboro Commons.”
But the Hillsboro brain trust rejected it and instead opted for the obvious name – South Hillsboro – which, incidentally, is what Hillsboro folks had always called it.
Praise Ye The Dollar! Amen and Hallelujah!
In just one year the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funneled $60 million of your dollars to The Rev. Richard Hamlet’s Global Ministries Foundation, owners of the
Goodwill Village and Warren Apartments in Memphis, TN.
The problem: This public housing, built for low income families, housed more rats, mice and roaches, not to mention bare wires and broken toilets, than people.
Why didn’t HUD inspectors scope this out? They didn’t bother. Why didn’t Tennessee inspectors uncover this nightmare? HUD wouldn’t let them inspect. So, according to Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) Wastebook, it continued until local media smoked it out.
And Rev. Hamlet’s salary? $485,000. Praise ye the Dollar!
For this waste of money you worked for, HUD earns this week’s coveted Golden Fleece Award.