Stimulus Dollars Paid For Cocaine For Monkeys
Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain have issued a report about the “stimulus” spending approved by Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats and in that report they detail what they consider to be the 100 most wasteful products.
You can read the entire report here in PDF format.
So what sort of waste did they come up with? How about half a million dollars for new windows in a closed visitors center in Washington that isn’t going to be re-opened:
Despite having no plans to reopen a shuttered visitor center at Mount St. Helens in Washington state, the U.S. Forest Service is spending more than $554,000 to replace its windows.1 One government official likened it to “keeping a vacant house in good repair,” while another official noted that there is hope to find some purpose for the building in the future, whether as a hotel, science camp or restaurant.2 Despite those efforts, there are no current plans to use the empty space.3
How about $762,372 on creating the “YouTube of dace.”
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte received more than $750,000 in stimulus funds to help develop a computerized choreography program that its creators believe could lead to a YouTube-like “Dance Tube” online application.10 The grant says UNC-Charlotte will “define an evolving system that assists in the design and production of interactive dance performances with real-time audience interaction.”11
And yes, $71,623 on stimulating monkeys with cocaine:
Researchers at Wake Forest University think that, in at least one case, it is good to monkey around with stimulus dollars. The Department of Health and Human Services has sent $71,623 to the Winston-Salem college to see how monkeys react under the influence of cocaine.
By the way, North Dakota readers will be interested to learn that there’s a project in the state that made the list as well. Specifically, a new visitors center at the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge:
The almost 15,000-acre489 Audubon National Wildlife Refuge, located about an hour north of Bismarck, North Dakota is visited by fewer than 80 people a day on average.490 However, that hasn’t prevented the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from spending over $6 million to build a new administration and visitor center for the refuge.491 While the old building was over 50 years old, the new building will be built to special energy efficient specifications and will include a 1,038–square-foot multipurpose room and 884-square-foot exhibit hall.492
My family actually owns a lake cabin near the refuge, and if there are 80 who are visiting it daily I’d be surprised. I think most of these “visitors” are really hunters and fisherman moving through it to get access to Lake Audubon and surrounding hunting areas.
Spending $6 million on a visitors center there is a tragic waste of money.
Tags: Economy, jobs, john mccain, Stimulus, tom coburn
