U.S. Gov't Spending Big Money to Study a Study About Studies
Posted by Brittany Stepniak - Monday, May 14th, 2012
Last week, I was watching one of Baltimore's local news stations and they covered a story on the millions of dollars wasted on "free" government-distributed calendars lobbying and supporting federal officials.
Yes, I'm referring to the outdated wall calendars from the days of old. In a modern-day times when calendars are at our fingertips almost every second of every waking day – desktop computers, Gmail accounts, blackberries, iPhones (even flip phones!), and advanced tablets of all kinds come installed with multiple organizational calendars – it came as a shock that the government still goes out of its way to spend so lavishly on something so trivial.
What's a couple million dollars when we're already trillions of dollars in debt anyway? A couple million foolishly spent, that's what. It's impractical, irrational, and above all, extremely irresponsible.
The next day I saw an ABC story that revealed how truly ridiculous government “waste spending” has become.
It's a toxic trend that only seems to worsen as the days go by...
In 2010, The Pentagon ordained a study to find just how much it cost the government to commission all of its various studies in a given period of time. You read that correctly: a study to study the costs of various studies.
But, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reviewed that particular study and issued a report last week concluding that the Pentagon's study about studies was a complete failure.
According to ABC News:
The study of a study of studies began in 2010 when Defense Secretary Robert Gates complained that his department was “awash in taskings for reports and studies.” He wanted to know how much they cost.
Two years later, the Pentagon review is still continuing, which prompted Congress to ask the GAO to look over the Pentagon’s shoulder. What they found lacked military precision.
The GAO found only nine studies that had been scrutinized by the Pentagon review, but the military was unable to “readily retrieve documentation” for six of the reports.
The GAO determined that The Department of Defense was not consistent in reporting cost estimates and they failed to include certain factors such as manpower. In response to this accusation, The Pentagon has “partially” agreed.
Ironically enough, the actual cost of this study on the study of studies was not released from the GAO.
But the absurdity doesn't stop there. For more substantial, jaw-dropping facts and stats regarding what the public doesn't know about government spending check out this interactive and informative website: Dirty Spending Secrets.
May 11, 2012 1:02pm
This Is Not a Joke: Government Issues Study of a Study About Studies
The Pentagon was inundated with so many studies in 2010 that it commissioned a study to determine how much it cost to produce all those studies.
Now the Government Accountability Office has reviewed the Pentagon’s study and concluded in a report this week that it’s a flop.
The study of a study of studies began in 2010 when Defense Secretary Robert Gates complained that his department was “awash in taskings for reports and studies.” He wanted to know how much they cost.
Two years later, the Pentagon review is still continuing, which prompted Congress to ask the GAO to look over the Pentagon’s shoulder. What they found lacked military precision.
The GAO found only nine studies that had been scrutinized by the Pentagon review, but the military was unable to “readily retrieve documentation” for six of the reports.
The Department of Defense’s “approach is not fully consistent with relevant cost estimating best practices and cost accounting standards,” the GAO concluded. In fact, they often did not include items like manpower, the report found.
The Pentagon “partially concurs” with the GAO’s report.
The cost of the study of the study of the studies was not available from the GAO.
How much money do federal employees cost taxpayers each year upgrading their flights to business class?
Evidently the foot room is better! Federal employees cost taxpayers $146 million each year when they upgrade to business class flights. The Government Accountability Office found that more than half of these upgrades were not properly authorized. The rest of us have to fly coach and live on a budget—it’s time our government does the same.
Next dirty secret »
How much money did Washington recently spend to train Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job? (Choose one.)
Incredibly, Washington is spending $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job. This is the kind of wasteful spending that President Obama and Congress have stubbornly refused to cut. Instead, they planned to raise taxes on families and entrepreneurs by trillions of dollars! Only action by citizens like you will break the Washington liberals of this kind of frivolous splurging.
Next dirty secret »
The Department of Agriculture recently tried to impose a new tax on Christmas trees. The revenues would have funded a program—and we’re not making this up—to boost the popularity of Christmas trees. Taxpayers also pay for the marketing and promotion of which other agricultural product through taxes and fees? (Choose one):
It’s all of the above—and many more including eggs, honey, mangos, and mushrooms. Leave it to Washington to impose “marketing assessments” like this. These programs cost growers and consumers money and skirt constitutional provisions that only Congress has the power to tax. And they also violate basic principles of free speech, making some producers—and the consumers who ultimately pony up the taxes—pay to communicate messages against their will.
Next dirty secret »
It’s the seedy underbelly of Washington, D.C. The hallways of Congress are often dark alleys of wasteful spending and pork-laden deal-making. Down these lanes, shadowy special interests and empire-building bureaucracies lie in wait to relieve innocent taxpayers of their hard-earned money. They spend billions on wasteful programs, pet projects, and the accumulation of personal power. They threaten to bankrupt our country as our national debt soars out of control.
The victims often don’t even know it’s happening. Many don’t realize how bad it is. Do you?
Take the following test to see if you can detect five of the dirty spending secrets Washington doesn’t want you to know . . .
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