WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 17: U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) speaks during a news conference December 17, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Sen. Coburn held the news conference to release 'Wastebook 2013,' his annual report of 'examples of wasteful and low-priority spending' of the U.S. Government. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 17: U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) speaks during a news conference December 17, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Sen. Coburn held the news conference to release 'Wastebook 2013,' his annual report of 'examples of wasteful and low-priority spending' of the U.S. Government. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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Each year Senator, and medical doctor, Tom Coburn (R-OK) publishes a record of the most ridiculous wastes of your tax dollars. Take a look at the 2014 Wastebook.

Every time we turn around it seems Congress or the president is giving billions for this and billions for that.  The amount of money is mind-boggling.

Currently the federal budget, if we actually had one, would be over $3 trillion dollars.

Here are just a few examples of the amazing things your government does with your hard earned tax dollars

Your Tax Dollars At Work

  • Swedish Massages for Rabbits $387,000. Rabbits are exercised then given Swedish style massage to measure recovery time. You can’ make this stuff up.
  • Gambling Monkeys $171,000. Proof positive that when monkeys gamble, using computer games, they believe in streaks just like humans do. Money well spent?
  • National Institute of Health got $371,026 of your money to find out if Moms love their dogs as much as their kids.
  • Study of Synchronized Swimming for Sea Monkeys $307,524. These are the same folks that put a shrimp on a treadmill.
  • “High End” free gym memberships for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) $450,000. They can’t secure the southern border but they are in excellent physical shape.
  • Golf Club Testing on the International Space Station $3 billion.
  • A congressional committee blocked the closing of a no longer needed “Sheep Research Site,” So $1.98 million will continue to be wasted.
  • The Pentagon bought too much ammo. $1 billion will be spent to destroy $16 billion in military grade ammo. If it was not destroyed that money could pay the salaries for $54,000 army privates.
  • What would humans do if they met an outer space alien? Your government is spending $392,000 to find out. I assume they are looking for outer space aliens to volunteer for the program. You know who you are.
  • An $18 million, 20,000 square foot, Grammy Museum in Mississippi will get $1.25 million of taxpayer money even though they pay no taxes. In fact the full bill for construction will be paid by taxpayers federal and state taxes.
  • Homeland Security has more cars than they can use. About 2/3rds are being underused at a cost to taxpayers of between $35.3 and $48.6 million.

Some Final Thoughts

There has never been any doubt about government spending. I’m guessing you would have no problem spending money that’s not really yours.

I think that’s the way government looks at spending. A.) It’s not my money, and B.) There’s plenty more where that came from.

The sad part is that no one really cares about all this waste because they don’t feel any pain because of it.

Here’s what you’re missing. What if it took $1 trillion to run government instead of $3 trillion?

Instead of being in the 15-25 percent tax bracket we’d have a 10 percent tax bracket or less.

How much more would that be in your pocket each payday?

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