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Federal Fumbles: You Won't Believe How Your Tax Dollars Are Wasted

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With a government drowning in trillions of dollars in debt, you'd think it would stop spending billions on stupid stuff.  That's why one senator just put out a list of 100 projects that wasted a quarter of a trillion dollars.

This is the second year Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., has put out "Federal Fumbles," a big spotlight on outrageous cases of federal overspending.  They include "things like the NIH study of about $2 million to study how children perceive food, including testing to see when food is sneezed on, if 5-year-olds will still eat the food." Lankford said.  " Now, I think we could have answered that question for less than $2 million."

Another maddening example: More than half-a-million dollars digging up Icelandic church cemeteries.

"Doing grave digging in Iceland which we had paid for recently to be able to study the cultures in the 8th century to the 12th century in Iceland," Lankford said.  "I'm not sure what the connection to the American economy is to that and how that helps us long term to do grave digging in Iceland, but that's one of the things we paid for." 

Lankford points out all this overspending adds up to a federal debt of almost $20 trillion.

You may think that mega-large debt doesn't have anything to do with you.  But if you're an average American household, your family owes $165,000 of that debt. Yes, that is $165,000.  And you thought your credit card debt was bad!

By the way, Lankford practices what he preaches about cost cutting, running his Senate office way below the budget allotted him.  In fact, during each of the last couple of years, he and his office have returned $230,000 to the U.S. Treasury.  

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About The Author

Paul
Strand

Como corresponsal del buró de noticias de CBN en Washington DC, Paul Strand ha cubierto una variedad de temas políticos y sociales, con énfasis en defensa, justicia y el Congreso. Strand comenzó su labor en CBN News en 1985 como editor de asignaciones nocturnas en Washington, DC. Después de un año, trabajó con CBN Radio News por tres años, volviendo a la sala de redacción de televisión para aceptar un puesto como editor en 1990. Después de cinco años en Virginia Beach, Strand se trasladó de regreso a la capital del país, donde ha sido corresponsal desde 1995. Antes de unirse a CBN News, Strand