Getting Down to Brass Tax

Government vanity takes on many forms: bridges to nowhere; dead-end agencies; $16 muffins. However, the waste is evolving, with expenditures going toward studies about politician’s ambiguity, failed firms, and a stream of smart phone junk.

 “What I Meant Was…”

 In 2010, the National Science Foundation issued an unusual grant: $216,884 to research why political candidates make vague statements.  Conducted by UC Berkeley and Stanford, the study seeks to understand the relationship between statement ambiguity and personal gain.

It is a common cliché – or common sense – that politicians are fence-sitters. But even if this cliché did not hold, and empirical evidence into their behavior was necessary, six figures would still be a high price to pay for such knowledge.

A Black Hole of Housing

On November 8^th, 2011, the government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae requested a staggering $7.8 billion from the Federal Government. Coupled with the $6.6 billion in federal aid requested by Freddie Mac, approximately $14.4 billion of your tax dollars may be sucked away.

Could this be a permanent vacuum of our revenue? Fannie Mae CFO Susan McFarland claimed to be "working to reduce losses," emphasizing a desire to "limit taxpayer exposure." Nevertheless, this is the firm’s third straight negative quarter, and the 16^th negative quarter in a five year period.

Given that Fannie Mae’s finances are knee-deep in the red, it may not be a black hole after all but just another failed government entity trying to institute housing as a right for every American.

Dial M for Money

The U.S. government website Mobile Apps (www.apps.usa.gov) has compiled a list of 88 government-made applications for the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry smart phones.

Some apps, such as the Body Mass Index Calculator, are unnecessary when similar and comparable alternatives are free via a simple Google search. Others, like GobiernoUSA.gov, are costly expanses into bilingualism where it’s not necessary.

True to form for big government, though, their apps are a showcase of the absurd.  For instance, rather than insure its program’s solvency for another century, the Social Security Administration instead chose to invest in “Baby Name Playroom.” According to the Mobile Apps website, Baby Name Playroom is available so you can “Search the most popular baby names of the past 130 years using official Social Security data.”   Meanwhile, the Smithsonian worked towards its 2010 release of “MEanderthal,” a program that transforms a user’s face into the image a Neanderthal. Really?  Is this the way our government should be spending our money?

Between the many government departments involved, the cumulative expense of everything involved with this technology is staggering. According to BigGovernment.com, OSHA paid over $200,000 for the development of just one mobile application to provide citizens a way to determine what the heat index is based on outside air temperature and humidity.  Our money is being dialed away, and fast.