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10 Ridiculous Things The Government Paid For This Year

By Adam Kazda | December 29, 2017

2017 was a strange year, and this list will make you want to leave it faster than you can say RUSSIA.

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1. Two senate staffers took a $48,460.24 trip to South Africa

At least Toto would approve.

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2. $3 million to find out who can smell ‘asparagus pee’

Interestingly, a good portion of European-Americans cannot smell the odor.

3. EPA Spent $693,000 on Unused Parking Spaces

For the last two years, EPA headquarters in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. paid $1.5 million to subsidize parking for their employees. Turns out half of the parking spots were unoccupied.

4. House committees spent at least $46,000 on bottled water this year

Filling our landfills while emptying our wallets.

5. The Pentagon spent $28 million on the wrong camouflage

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The Pentagon spent $28 million more than needed by buying camouflage uniforms that would only be useful in 2.1% of Afghanistan’s total land area.

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6. $300,000 spent on a frankenstein festival

“Frankenfest” kicked off this September giving attendees an array of activities including franken yard games and Franks-N-Steins beer garden.

7. EPA pays $138,000 for employee’s law degree…then he quits

The author of The Godfather once wrote, “A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.”

8. $310 billion spent this year on programs that were never authorized by congress or are expired

Want to know the true power of bureaucracy? Dead programs that aren’t important enough to be reauthorized, yet they continue to rob taxpayers.

9. Wine Institute receives $6,639,278 despite $1.62 Billion in exports

The (mostly) california wine institute drinks in the Market Access Program’s dollars meant to help emerging U.S. exports.  

10. $30,000 for the production of ‘Doggie Hamlet’

There’s actually a video, and it’s worth the watch.

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