Taxpayers’ Money At Work

By Semperpapa

Well, what do you know? The federal government wasting taxpayers’ money. I am shocked!

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok) just released a report on the National Science Foundation. This is a federal agency that has the task to conduct research for the advancement of scientific and engineering knowledge. While historically the agency has been probably one of the most forthcoming in keeping records clean and transparent, the report from Coburn shows that maybe the pedestal the agency has been standing on is not as high as previously thought.

It appears that the NSF has been very liberal with the use of its annual $6.8B budget.

Mentioned in the report, taxpayers’ money have been used by NSF researchers to study shrimps working out on tiny little treadmills; studying the social site Facebook players of Farm Ville; studying behavior of those who post pictures on Flickr; studying why the same basketball teams from the same universities make the finals of the NCAA tournament.

These may be all worthwhile endeavors that greatly enhance the knowledge of the public at large, or maybe not. I understand that I may not be as sophisticated as some of the academic elite, but I failed to see the contribution that such “research” may represent for the advancement of technology.

I am an engineer by trade, spent all my professional life for the last 30 years in mechanical design, trying always to push the envelop for materials, processes and applications. And yet the significance of some of the governmental intrusion into the field of research just plain escapes me.

Sen. Coburn reports also talks of a $1.5M grant given by the NSF to some scientists to produce a robot that can fold laundry. Is such a research really enhancing the quality of life for mankind?

I realize that the realization of a robotic system that can operate a complex task as folding a towel could have great implications in the development of robotic technology for much more important tasks, but it would be more useful to address a problem of greater impact for research.

For example, if the research was directed to build a robot that would improve security of our soldiers in the field of battle, or the safety of police officers or fire fighters in the conduct of their business, I could justify the program. If the research was improving the medical field efficiency and success, I would be all for it, but systems for these purposes are already being worked on by other entities, mostly private companies. So the NSF endeavor is practically useless.

What Coburn report is highlighting is at the national level and one agency only. But wasteful spending of this type is present at every level of government. I am reminded of a $4M spent by an individual here in California, for the study of wind power generation. The grant was given by an obscure community college board in the state, meaning financed by Californians, to research the application of wind generated energy. $4M later, the impressing results were one wind turbine powering one 60W light bulb.

It is safe to deduce that the waste of taxpayers’ money is present at every level of government intrusion, once again showing that we the people can always count on government inefficiency in handling our tax money.

But the story does not end there, because free handing over of money by the government brings unethical and illegal activities to the surface too. Coburn report also points out that some of the money allocated for the NSF was used by some of their researchers to go on vacation, to pay for Jell-O wrestling, to purchase alcohol and video games.

Apologists are running around trying to justify the actions of the NSF by stating that waste is present in every government agency and that the NSF is actually one agency that takes ethic research more seriously than others. Well that is the problem. The mentality today is that “yes, we have problems, but we have less problems than others” as if that is a more acceptable excuse.

Together with the report from Coburn, the Government Accountability Office issued a report indicating that several government programs are redundant with others and that government agencies are failing to search, identify and address duplication of efforts.

For some teachers’ training programs, for example, the GAO found that 44 of 47 programs were a duplication of “at least” one other program.

While it has become fashionable to attack corporations for their greed and, at times, unscrupulous business tactics, it still remains clear that the pursue of profit on their part is still based on the principles of free market. The only time corporate greed takes a life of its own is when these businesses are so big and powerful that they become a tool of the government, as in the case of General Electric, General Motors or Chrysler.

In these times of austere economic conditions, with high unemployment and unimaginable deficit, the promise Obama made as he was campaigning in 2008, to go through every spending item and eliminate waste, has gone down in flame like the majority of his promises. But for the Obamadroids, it’s all good, because every other president has similarly failed it in the past. So much for hope and change.

Just my thoughts!