With presidential candidate Bernie Sanders promoting ideas about tuition-free public college, many taxpayers are worried this will cause a significant rise in taxes. While one cannot deny that it would cost a huge amount of money, and without getting into the argument of whether it is right to offer such assistance, it's important to realize there are much worse programs your hard-earned, beloved tax dollars are funding. After reading up on some of these unnecessary programs, you may see there are ways to stop such wasteful spending and make Senator Sanders' proposal a much more hopeful possibility, without the risk of a heavy tax increase falling on American workers' shoulders. The full list is arguably infinite, but here are some of the most costly — and most ridiculous — ways your tax dollars are spent.
1. Loans For Energy Companies...
...of which most went bankrupt shortly after. The U.S. government has invested a total of more than $4.5 billion into several energy companies who have failed. These are loans that either never get paid back at all and if they are somehow paid back, it is usually not in full.
2. Duplicative Spending
In 2011, the U.S. government spent around $79 billion on computer technologies, of which at least $4.8 billion were found to be duplicative, like purchasing the same exact computer program twice.
3. Paying For Vacant Government Buildings (While Still Buying New Ones)
Over $25 billion of American tax money is spent to maintain vacant government buildings, such as government office buildings. No agency currently uses these buildings and one is left to wonder, "Why are these buildings not sold, or at least rented out while not in use?" To top it off, the government continues to buy and/or build new buildings.
4. Food Stamps For Dead People
Recently, the United States Inspector General found that around 2,000 deceased people are still receiving food stamps benefits in New York and Massachusetts alone. Along with that, around 8,000 people received duplicate assistance by mistake. With just those two states costing around $16 million, who knows how many similar cases can be found throughout the entire U.S.?
5. Restoration Of Historical Religious Buildings... IN OTHER COUNTRIES
With so much controversy here at home over religion's place in our everyday lives, why is over $770 million spent to restore other countries' historical buildings? Of course, I have nothing against religious history, but I can almost guarantee some people in our country would freak out if they found out the government paid to help restore a church or other religious building here at home.
6. Some Smaller, Yet Expensive (Not To Mention Extremely Ridiculous) Programs
-Portraits of important government officials have cost U.S. taxpayers over $180,000.
-Excessive printing in Congress of over 1,000 pages a day, including every word said in every Congressional meeting, costing $8,000,000 annually.
-In 2012, the National Institute of Health (NIH) used a $500,000 tax-payer funded grant to study whether people who binge drink in their thirties feel immature.
-The same agency used another $660,000 grant to find out whether or not watching television reruns makes people happy.
-In 2011, the NIH used over $300,000 in tax money to study the effect of giving cocaine to quails (yes, the bird).
-The National Science Foundation (NSF) used a $500,000 grant to find out how long shrimp can run on a treadmill.
-The same agency also spent nearly $1,000,000 to find out exactly how rumors get started.
-The NSF spent over $1,000,000 to study how quickly parents-to-be catch on to baby-naming trends.
-Again, the same agency spent $1.2 million to study the effects of the game "World of Warcraft" on elderly memory.
It is obvious the United States government has some issues with over spending (you think?!) on some very questionable things. All of these programs' information can be found on this website, along with so many more cases of extreme government spending on completely unnecessary things.
But really, what happens when you give cocaine to a quail? I mean, if we're funding it, I'd love to know.
