New Coburn Report on Stimulus Silliness
Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) office has released a new report documenting 100 examples of questionable stimulus spending. From a public policy perspective, it’s a tidy illustration of why the government doesn’t do a very good job of spending other people’s money. In terms of entertainment value, it’s a pretty amusing read in a sad sort of way. Although, I do have one question for the Coburn staffers who included the story of a cruise company receiving a million dollars in anti-terrorism funds: Did you not see Speed 2?!
Sen. Coburn’s List of 100 Questionable “Stimulus” Projects
My old boss, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), has a report out this morning that identifies 100 “questionable” projects funded by the federal “stimulus” package. I’m not going to mention particular examples here. I’ll simply say that I hope the theme that readers of the Coburn report come away with is that the federal government should not fund state and local activities. The numerous examples in the Coburn report provide concrete evidence of this truth, and I wish the report would have spent more time in the introduction fleshing it out. Fortunately, my colleague Chris Edwards wrote an excellent policy analysis on the problems with federal subsidies to state and local government. Thus, I would encourage those interested to read the Coburn and Edwards reports together.
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