Without authorization, for instance, the feds spent $19.6 million annually on the International Fund for Ireland. Sounds like a noble cause, but the money went for projects like pony-trekking centers and golf videos.
Congressional budget-cutters spared the $440,000 spent annually to have attendants push buttons on the fully automated Capitol Hill elevators used by Representatives and Senators.
Last year, the National Endowment for the Humanities spent $4.2 million to conduct a nebulous National Conversation on Pluralism and Identity. Obviously, talk radio wasnt considered good enough.
The Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency channeled some $11 million to psychics who might provide special insights about various foreign threats. This was the disappointing Stargate program.
The Department of Education spent $34 million supposedly helping Americans become better shoppers and homemakers. Wasnt it about time?
The federal government proposed spending $14 million for a new Army Museum, although there already were 47 Army Museums around the country. We helped stop that idea.
Dubious government spending schemes abound since bureaucrats play with other peoples money. For example, the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) spent $70,029 to see if the degu, a diurnal South American rodent, can help us better understand jet lag . . . they spent $77,826 to study Coping with Change in Czechoslovakia . . . $100,271 to see if volunteering is good for older people . . . $124,910 to reduce School Phobia in children . . . $161,913 to study Israeli reactions to SCUD Attacks during the Gulf War . . . and $187,042 to study the quality of life in Hawaii.
Over the years, political wrangling twists the most noble-sounding government programs beyond recognition. For example, the Social Security Administrations $25 billion a year Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. Almost 250,000 children qualify for SSI checks because they cant participate in age appropriate activities. Worse, thousands of prisoners get SSI checks relating to their alleged disabilitiescosting taxpayers about $20 million a year.
Thats not all. In Denver, the government reportedly sent $160,000 to recipients at their official addressa tavern. A San Francisco addict used his SSI check to buy drugs, which he subsequently sold on the street for a profit. A Van Nuys, California, alcoholic received a $26,000 SSI check, then spent the money on a van and two cars which he subsequently wrecked while driving drunk. Los Angeles SSI recipients reportedly faked mental illness and had a doctor concoct false medical records, so they could pocket $45,000 worth of checks. An estimated 79,000 alcoholics and drug addicts are believed to spend SSI checkssome $360 million annuallyon their habits.
Again and again, programs aimed at the poor are captured by well-heeled interest groups. For example, the Commerce Departments U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration (USTTA) gave away $440,000 in so-called disaster relief to Western ski resort operators when there wasnt much snow.
Most Outrageous Government Waste | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty
I hope.... 
