I've said all over USMB what I would cut from the budget. Maybe some on the left could pick what they would save from the list below...
Government waste at itÂ’s finest | Political Realities
* The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.[1]
Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.[2]
* Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.[3]
* Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them–costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually–fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]
* The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts.[5]
* Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.[6]
* Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.[7]
* A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, including “over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold.” The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.[8]
* Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.[9]
NewsBusters' Huston falsely claims Obama responsible for funding "Chinese hookers" study
May 13, 2009 1:09 pm ET
SUMMARY:
NewsBusters' Warner Todd Huston falsely claimed that President Obama funded a $2.6 million NIH grant to "help train Chinese prostitutes to 'drink responsibly on the job.' " In fact, the grant was awarded during the Bush administration.
In a May 13 blog entry posted on
several conservative blogs, NewsBusters contributing writer
Warner Todd Huston falsely claimed that President Obama funded a $2.6 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to "help train Chinese prostitutes to 'drink responsibly on the job.' " In the post -- headlined, "Obama Pays to Treat Alcoholism in Chinese Hookers" -- Huston claimed that "the President of 'change' seems to be The One that drunken Chinese prostitutes 'have been waiting for.' ... [D]id Obama become president of Chinese hookers, too?" In fact, the NIH grant, which will
"establish and evaluate whether an alcohol and HIV intervention center can assist in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS among sex workers in China," was awarded during the Bush administration. Indeed, the very source Huston cited in making the claim -- a May 12 Cybercast News Service (CNS)
article -- reported that the grant was "made last November." A Wayne State University
press release announcing the grant was issued on November 5, 2008.
Bret Baier and Glenn Beck each also referred to the $2.6 million NIH grant during the May 12 broadcasts of their respective Fox News programs and portrayed the grant as controversial,
but neither mentioned that the grant was made during the Bush administration.