U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released a new oversight report, “Wastebook 2011” that highlights over $6.5 billion in examples of some of the most egregious ways our taxpayer dollars were wasted - 100 of the countless unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects spread throughout the federal government while the money for extending jobless benefits to the millions of Americans who are still out of work can't be found.

What made his annual list?

• $75,000 for an awareness campaign about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees&poinsettias.

• $15.3 million for one of the infamous Bridges to Nowhere in Alaska, including a million dollars just this year to pay for staff to promote one of the bridges that was never built.

• $550,000 for a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

• $350,000 to support an International Art Exhibition in Venice.

• $10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan.

• $35 million for political party conventions in 2012.

• $765,828 to subsidize “pancakes for yuppies” in the nation’s capital.

• $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking.


“Video games, robot dragons, Christmas trees, and magic museums. This is not a Christmas wish list, these are just some of the ways the federal government spent your tax dollars. Over the past 12 months, politicians argued, debated and lamented about how to reign in the federal government’s out of control spending. All the while, Washington was on a shopping binge, spending money we do not have on things we do not absolutely need. Instead of cutting wasteful spending, nearly $2.5 billion was added each day in 2011 to our national debt, which now exceeds $15 trillion,” Dr. Coburn said.

Read the full report here