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]
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]
The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers
$146 million annually in flight upgrades.
[15]
A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the
$2.5 billion in "stimulus" funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.
[28]
Suburban families are receiving large
farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards -- subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want.
[36]
The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers
$2 billion annually not to farm their land.
[49]
Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save
$9 billion annually.
[33]
The National Institutes of Health spends
$1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.
[41]
Audits showed
$34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.
[45]
Congressional investigators were able to receive
$55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.
[48]