Here are five examples of waste, fraud and abuse involving DEAD people that will make you either shake your head, or grind your teeth, rip your clothes and cry.
After these 5, do run through the others I found...you won't believe them, but you can go see for yourselves!
1. Stimulating the Dead
More than 89,000 deceased or locked up Americans were sent $250 stimulus checks in 2009, according to a September 2010 report by the Office of Inspector General on waste, fraud and abuse. That adds up to about $22.3 million in stimulus checks mailed out to the DECEASED.
2. Warming the Dead
The Department of Health and Human Services sent 11,000 dead people across seven states $3.9 million in assistance to for pay heating and cooling costs, according to a 2009 Government Accountability Office investigation of waste, fraud and abuse. The payments were made through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which is designed to provide aid to low-income households.
3. Farm Subsidies for the Dead
From 1999 through 2005, the federal Farm Services Agency paid out $1.1 billion in subsidies to 172,801 dead farmers, according to the Government Accountability Office. The subsidies are designed to encourage Americans to pursue farming as a profession. It's OK for farms to continue receiving payments for two years after a recipient's death, but GAO investigators looking into claims of waste, fraud and abuse discovered that lots of money was going to farmers who had died long ago.
4. Housing Subsidies for the Dead
Maybe cemeteries just weren't good enough? Local public housing assistance agencies paid out more than $15.2 million in housing subsidies to 3,995 low-income households where at least one tenant was - you guessed it - DEAD. That's according to a 2008 report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Inspector General, which investigates claims of waste, fraud and abuse at the agency.
5. Pain Meds for the Dead
Taking the cake for the most ludicrous waste, fraud and abuse in federal government could be this 2009 finding from the Government Accountability Office. Medicaid paid more than $200,000 for prescriptions written for over 1,800 dead people in JUST five states in 2006 and 2007. What's even more incredible is that the health-insurance provider for low-income Americans shelled out more than $500,000 for prescription drugs that had been written by 1,200 DEAD doctors!
6. Dead Federal Employees Paid $120 Million Annually!
It's a well known fact that U.S. government employees get great benefits, but did you know that for at least the last five years, the federal government has been sending benefit checks worth an average of $120 million EACH YEAR to retired federal employees who are also, by the way, DEAD?
This latest revelation of over $601 million in government waste comes in the form of an investigation and accompanying report filed September, 2011 by Patrick E. McFarland, the inspector general (IG) of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
According to IG's report, Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased Annuitants, the value of benefit checks improperly sent to deceased federal retirees averages from $100 - $150 million annually and has totaled more than $601 million since 2006!
Here's a few more that don't involve DEAD people.
1~ Shrimp Treadmill Study Paid for With Taxpayer Money
The infamous shrimp treadmill study, conducted by researchers at Pacific University and College of Charleston, came under scrutiny during debates over the federal deficit and wasteful spending back in 2011.
Yes, citizens, the shrimp treadmill research cost taxpayers more than $3 million over the course of a decade. That includes a a $559,681 grant for research into "Impaired Metabolism and Performance in Crustaceans Exposed to Bacteria."
The decision to fund the research actually came from the National Science Foundation.
Researchers developed the shrimp treadmill to test whether sickness would impair the mobility of the crustaceans. It remained unclear, however, what the practical impact of such research would be.
The "results"?
Sick shrimp have more limited mobility, which may mean they are less likely to avoid being eaten. "A decrease in performance may mean the difference between life and death."
YOU THINK?
2~ How Far Can a Cricket Walk in a Day? USDA Study Finds Out! YOU PAID FOR THE STUDY! And THEY ARE STILL DOING STUDIES ON THEM!
So, you were wondering how far a flightless 'Mormon cricket' could walk in a day. Well, even if you weren't, the USDA wants you to know and conducted a study to find out. By attaching tiny (and probably very expensive) transmitters to selected crickets, USDA researchers tracked a band of the migrating insects as they chirped and chomped their way across a swath of northwestern Colorado grassland.
NO, SERIOUSLY, THERE IS A REAL "MORMON CRICKET"... Their actual name is Anabrus simplex , large insects that can grow to almost three inches long. They live throughout western North America in range lands dominated by sagebrush. Just one minor problem... the Mormon cricket is actually a shield-backed katydid, NOT a cricket. Does the FDA give a hoot about that? NOOOO!
In the summer of 2003, these varmints were on the move out west, and team of researchers, led by Agricultural Research Service scientist Gregory Sword, was tracking them! Sword, Pat Lorch from the University of North Carolina and Darryl Gwynne from the University of Toronto charted the migration habits of 12 Mormon crickets in northwestern Colorado. Micro-radio transmitters, about one-quarter of the insect's weight, were glued to individual crickets. These transmitters provided signals so that the team could find the same insects 24 hours later.
THIS "STUDY" OF THESE NON-CRICKETS HAS EXTENDED TO 2012!
STUDY OF THEIR IMMUNE SYSTEM, 2011!
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2011/110118.htm
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=10528
WHEN WILL IT END? MILLIONS ON CRICKETS? STOP THE INSANITY!
"The United States Department of Agriculture spent $2 million on an internship program that only hired one full-time intern, a recent audit of the USDA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer reveals."
WAS IT FOR THE CRICKET STUDY????
3~ Well, actually this one has several ridiculous expenditures, but all came in 2010, so...
~ $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in California! Hidden in: the 'Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Act' by Congressional PORKER, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) "for the Providence Holy Cross Foundation tattoo removal violence prevention program in Mission Hills". In fiscal 2002 there was a $50,000 earmark for a tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo, in the district of Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.). What's with California and tattoos?
~ $245,643 for an Arkansas truck driving school? Yes! Hidden in: the 'Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act' by PORKER Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.) for the Arkansas Commercial Driver Training Institute at Arkansas State University-Newport, funded through the SBA... "to improve ASU-Newport’s Driver Skills Training Range.” A TRAINING RANGE?
~ $1.24 million for tree snake control IN GUAM! YES, GUAM!
Hidden in: 'Department Of Defense Appropriations Act'! Defense against TREE SNAKES!?
PORKERS: Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam)
Since 1996, 14 projects worth $14.6 million have been earmarked in Hawaii and Guam for "interdiction" of Brown Tree Snakes, which are still slithering through the appropriations bill.
~ $3 million for a project to distribute NASA images BUT ONLY FOR THE University of North Dakota in Grand Forks to help make data received from NASA satellite images more accessible to the public. Apparently the two senators ( Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) who slipped this PORK into the 'Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Act' have never heard of NASA TV. According to the NASA website, “The NASA TV Public and Educational channels are ‘free-to-air,’ meaning your cable or satellite service provider can carry them AT NO COST.” MAYBE TAXPAYERS should contact their local cable or satellite service provider to get NASA TV, and ask the senators for a rebate of their share of that $3 million!
~ $15 million gift for Ireland? WHY NOT?
Hidden in: 'State and Foreign Operations Appropriations'
Porkers: Massachusetts?
$15,000,000 added by the 'House for the International Fund for Ireland' (IFI). Established in 1986, IFI’s objectives are to “promote economic and social advance and to encourage contact, dialogue and reconciliation between nationalists and unionists throughout Ireland.”
To their good, the House Republican leadership 'led the charge' in 2011 to get rid of the $17.5 million the IFI was to receive from Congress that year. Supporters of the IFI thought they had persuaded several U.S. senators to reinsert some funding into the short term Continuing Resolution. Republicans prevailed however and the IFI’s budgetary commitment from the U.S. was shut down, AFTER this "last, final" payment.
4~ $465 million for continued development of an OBSOLETE fighter engine!
$465,000,000 for the continued development of the F-136 engine as an alternative engine in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.
According to a February 24, 2009 United Press International article, the money was allotted, “despite the fact that the winning engine had already prevailed in half a dozen public and private competitions and despite the fact that no other part of the plane would be competed once production commenced.” CBS News reported on July 30, 2007 that the Air Force and two independent panels concluded that the second engine is “not necessary and not affordable” and that the professed savings from competition “will never be achieved.” No wonder ALL 435 representatives and 100 senators refused to be identified with this massive waste of tax dollars.
5~ What do robotic squirrels, menus for Martian meals and a musical about climate change have in common?
They've all been made possible in 2012 with taxpayer assistance, according to the latest survey of government waste put out by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
A Federal GRANT of $325,000 was awarded for the development of "Robosquirrel" - a robotic rodent designed to test the interaction between rattlesnakes and squirrels.
Though NASA has no plans or budget for any manned spaceflights to Mars, the agency IS spending about $1 million each year on developing "the Mars menu." It's an effort to come up with a variety of food that humans could eat one day on Mars.
Nearly $700,000 from the National Science Foundation was awarded to a New York-based theater company so it could develop a musical about climate change and biodiversity. "The Great Immensity" opened in Kansas City this year. Along with the songs one reviewer described as sounding like "a Wikipedia entry set to music," the audience was also able to experience "flying monkey poop."
In all, the 2012 Waste Book report details 100 examples totaling nearly $19 billion.
There's more, sadly, at :
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/15/coburn-waste-book-details-1-billion-in-eye-opening-government-expenses/#ixzz2I2I6AaeG
6~ Yes, You Paid For It: Tax-funded NSF study shows rich people's yards have more plants! You had better sit down for this one! Taxpayer-funded research by the National Science Foundation has determined that yards in "upscale," higher-income neighborhoods are likely to display a more highly diverse mix of plants than yards in lower income areas. Who would have thunk it? Better yet, who would have cared?
The "study', conducted by the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, was undertaken in order to "measure ecological characteristics of the Central Arizona-Phoenix area, provide a baseline for future monitoring, and give an overview of features such as plant diversity, soil chemistry, and animal distributions," stated LTER's program director in an NSF press release.
But wait... There's more
As an added bonus, the NSF study also revealed greater bird diversity in higher income residential areas. Could there be a scientific trend here? If the yards of the wealthy contain more plants and birds than yards of the less "resource abundant," could this effect also apply to items like sailboats, RVs and pool houses? Fear not, inquiring minds, we'll find out. There's plenty of our money out there for funding this sort of vital research and Congress is working on spending it right now!
Note: "NSF is an independent FEDERAL agency that "supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering", with an annual budget of nearly $5.3 BILLION. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 30,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 10,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $200 million in professional and service contracts yearly." (Source: National Science Foundation)
Well, I'm SICK, SICK of the long list... so go here to get a better perspective of how VERY BAD this Federal WASTE really is:
http://membership.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_porkbarrelreport
You really don't have a grasp on how rampant this is, but you CAN see if YOUR PIGS are at the trough! You haven't held Congress accountable for much in DECADES, citizens! Don't you think it's time you DID?
GET ON IT!
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