Coburn shows Congress still spending on unconstitutional projects

If you abandon the US Constitution completely when it comes to the branches of our government, you abandon freedom and security. You also abandon your money. President Barack Obama routinely ignores the tenets of that legal and binding document and so does Congress.

Dr. Tom Coburn, senator from Oklahoma, prepared a report that reflects more than $6.5 billion taxpayer dollars spent on what he called “100 of the countless unnecessary, duplicative and low priority projects spread throughout the federal government.”

Coburn details each project in Wastebook, 2011.

Among them are:

• $15.3 million for a Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska. The bridge hasn’t been built but taxpayers are paying more than $1 million a year to pay staff to promote it.
• $550,000 for a documentary explaining how rock music helped collapse the Soviet Union.
• $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking.

Some of the projects had the potential to harm the people they were supposed to help. USAID implemented a $90 million program to “spur hiring and sales among Pakistani businesses,” said Coburn.

One contractor, Chemonics, was supposed to implement enhancements to mango production in Pakistan. Coburn wrote, “USAID…found only one farmer had received the promised equipment, but could not operate it because of a design flaw.”

Some of the farmers took out loans they may not be able to pay because sales projections were based on the program’s success.

One of the most outrageous projects can be found in Washington, D.C., the wealthiest area in America. Uncle Sam actually helped build an International House of Pancakes in a community deemed underserved by the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation. The Congressional Research Service found $500,000 of the $765,000 grant was used as an equity injection in DC Pancakes LLC for a 19 percent ownership interest.

Coburn wrote, “The new IHOP is not located in an ―underserved community but a popular Washington D.C. neighborhood. The neighborhood is Columbia Heights, which has become a local shopping hot spot for some and ―one of Washington‘s more desirable neighborhoods. Other businesses in the area include Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, and Starbucks.”

Until more fiscal conservatives are elected and congressmen perform their jobs in accordance with the US Constitution, American taxpayers will continue to fund nonsense and cronyism.

Ironically, liberals in Congress and the Executive Branch have consistently lobbied for tax increases on top of the tax increases included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by Democrats.

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Jan. 16, 2012)