Why do we tolerate the Government wasting our money?

[RLP]

17 Ways Government Wastes Your Money
http://www.investmentu.com/2012/February...waste.html
1.Exporting Elmo: The U.S. Agency for International Development provided $10 million to a Pakistani arts organization to adapt “Sesame Street” for Pakistani toddlers. The money will also help pay for the creation of 130 episodes of the show.
2.Dragon Robots for Preschoolers: The National Science Foundation spent $131,000 on robot dragons designed to mimic human responses to help teach preschoolers language skills. Apparently interaction with real humans was deemed inadequate.
3.Virtual Mummies: Thanks to a $25,000 federal grant, visitors to the Milwaukee Public Museum will now be able to experience a “3-D high-definition, full-color true holographic or holographic-like exhibit of a virtual mummy unwrapping.”
4.Dead Man’s Party: Those who complain federal employment benefits are already too generous won’t be pleased to learn that many government workers keep receiving payments long after they’ve died. The Inspector General for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management says “the amount of post-death improper payments is consistently $100-$150 million annually, totaling over $601 million in the last five years.”
5.Cowboy Poetry: It’s hard to recall John Wayne reciting verse in any of the many Westerns he made, but cowboy poetry is a big enough phenomenon to have its own annual celebration. And this year taxpayers helped pay for it courtesy of a $50,000 contribution from the U.S. government.
6.Promiscuous Quail: The National Institute of Health gave the University of Kentucky $176,000 to determine if Japanese quail are more likely to have sex when high on cocaine. The study is scheduled to last through 2015.
7.Happiness is… Social Media: Another National Science Foundation grant for $198,000 paid for a University of California-Riverside study of “motivations, expectations and goal pursuit in social media.” Among the questions the study seeks to answer: “Do unhappy people spend more time on Twitter or Facebook?”
8.Guilty Pleasure: The federal government gave the Hawaii Department of Agriculture $50,000 to help pay for the 2nd Annual Hawaiian Chocolate Festival. The goal is to “highlight the culinary talents and products specifically linked to Hawaii’s chocolate industry.”
9.O Christmas Tree: The U.S. government spent $74,000 last year to help the state of Michigan “increase awareness about the role Michigan plays in the production of trees and poinsettias.” Michigan’s $40 million Christmas tree industry already ranks third in the nation.
10.High on Pizza: A private company was given $484,000 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to build a Mellow Mushroom pizzeria in Arlington, TX. Mellow Mushroom is a national chain known for its use of hippie and drug themes.
11.Tips for India: The National Science Foundation wants to help politicians in India do a better job. So it is awarded a $426,000 grant for research to determine the effectiveness of communications to citizens from officeholders. The U.S. sent $126 million in aid to India last year, even though it is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
12.Art for Italians: The State Department contributed $350,000 for the United States to be part of the 54th International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy. No word on how much the exhibit enhanced U.S. international relations.
13.Jobs for Barbados: The mixed success the government has had creating jobs here in America did not discourage the U.S. Agency for International Development from spending

[George III]

Here is the way i think of it, I’d like to talk about some things that bring us together, things that point out our similarities instead of our differences cause that’s all you ever hear about in this country is our differences. That’s all the media and the politicians are ever talking about: the things that separate us, things that make us different from one another. That’s the way the ruling class operates in any society: they try to divide the rest of the people; they keep the lower and the middle classes fighting with each other so that they, the rich, can run off with all the ******* money. Fairly simple thing… happens to work. You know, anything different, that’s what they’re gonna talk about: race, religion, ethnic and national background, jobs, income, education, social status, sexuality, anything they can do to keep us fighting with each other so that they can keep going to the bank. You know how I describe the economic and social classes in this country? The upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there just to scare the **** out of the middle class… keep on showing up at those jobs.

[The One Billy Gunn]

If you don't like it GTFO no one is keeping your stupid unpatriotic ass here

[Carter]

I don't, that's why I'm voting Obama out!

[Meredith]

I agree. Trillions on fake trumped up wars.

[msi_cord]

These all sound like the pet projects of some Senator or Representative. That being said, you are pointing out mere drops in the bucket. When our government spends trillions of dollars annually, a couple million dollars of waste is insignificant.

[Weise Ente]

Ah, another utterly ignorant conservative.
Remember when Palin complained that the government was wasting million of fruit fly research?
Of course she had no clue that work on fruit flies forms the basis of modern genetics.

I'm more concerned with the billions to buy jets the Air Force says it doesn't even need.

[John R]

Maybe because we have some level of control over OUR government (unless we just waste our time yelling at trees and cars and clouds)? Maybe because what you think is a waste I might think is a good use of money, and OUR government belongs to all of us, not just to you. Many of us outgrow foolish, self-centred greed and pointless resentment as we grow up, but clearly a lot of us never actually grow up.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

You failed to mention the over one trillion dollars spent on the Iraq cluster fu*k/war.

[whoyeah]

I'll take Murray Blum as Council of Economic Advisers Chairman.