Sen. Coburn: Our watchdog
It’s a good thing the White House can’t fire GOP Sen. Tom Coburn the way it fires inspectors general for blowing the whistle on waste.
He’s doing the job no one else in the administration is allowed to do — telling us the truth about porkulus fraud and abuse.
While Bozo the VP Joe Biden clowns around and Obama’s keystone cops dawdle on the useless Recovery.gov website, Sen. Coburn has released a stimulus oversight report documenting 100 examples of stimulus waste.
You can read the whole report here.
The press release:
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D., today released an oversight report 100 Stimulus Projects: A Second Opinion that discloses 100 of the worst examples of waste in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus bill. The projects included in the report – worth $5.5 billion – range from Maine to California, and even two from the state of Oklahoma. Click here to read the entire report.
“The American people have a right to know how their stimulus dollars are being spent. In too many cases stimulus projects are wasting money we don’t have on things we don’t need,” Dr. Coburn said.
“Rather than growing our economy, the overall impact of stimulus spending may prove to be harmful to our economy. For example, Washington’s efforts to ‘stimulate’ the economy are increasing utility costs, repairing bridges nobody uses, building tunnels for turtles, and renovating extravagant train stations in remote areas while widely-used bridges and roads in poor shape are passed over,” Dr. Coburn said.
“I opposed the stimulus bill because I was concerned that 80 to 90 percent of the spending would not be true stimulus. I hope I am proven wrong. Yet, our initial findings continue to show that taxpayers are not getting the value they deserve and need,” Dr. Coburn said.
Dr. Coburn added that Earl Devaney, head of the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency (RAT) Board, estimates that at least $55 billion of stimulus funds may be lost to waste, fraud and abuse. However, the final number will likely be much higher. If stimulus funds do not promote economic growth history may indicate that the vast majority of stimulate dollars would have been better off staying in taxpayers’ pockets.
Ten examples of wasteful stimulus projects in the report include:
1. $1.5 million in “free” stimulus money for a new wastewater treatment plant results in higher utility costs for residents of Perkins, Oklahoma.
2. $1 billion for FutureGen in Mattoon, Illinois is the “biggest earmark of all time” for a power plant that may never work.
3. $15 million for “shovel-ready” repairs to little-used bridges in rural Wisconsin are given priority over widely used bridges that are structurally deficient.
4. $800,000 for little-used John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania airport to repave a back-up runway; the ‘Airport for Nobody’ Has Already Received Tens of Millions in Taxpayer dollars.
5. $3.4 million for a wildlife “eco-passage” in Florida to take animals safely under a busy roadway.
6. Nevada non-profit gets $2 million weatherization contract after recently being fired for same type of work.
7. $1.15 million for installation of a new guard rail for the non-existent Optima Lake in Oklahoma.
8. Nearly $10 million to renovate an abandoned train station that hasn’t been used in 30 years.
9. 10,000 dead people get stimulus checks, but the Social Security Administration blames a tough deadline.
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Sen. Coburns spotlights the $300 road signs I blogged about here and here.
10. Town of Union, New York, encouraged to spend a $578,000 grant it did not request for a homelessness problem it claims it does not have.
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Coburn recently announced he will run for re-election! I don’t think it’s what he wants to do. I think he would rather go back to his medical practice, but he knows we need him as does his family know. I wish he’d run for president. I’m ever so thank he is from the great state of Oklahoma.
I send thank you notes to Senator Coburn and Inhofe all the time…we are lucky to have these America loving Senators representing our state…
What do you mean If Einstein? No Duh! Even an old Rtard like me can see that!
Vast majority? Heck, I want it all back!
Wait a minute, isn’t that list from the Matthew Lesko books?
Maybe Obama should dress up in the riddler costume and dance around the screen to get me to buy into his stimulus plan.
It’s nice that he’s spotlighting this stuff, but seriously, this is all small potatos. Where’s the real beef?
I wondered how much those obama re-election signs cost for those projects. $300 each.
This is government fraud on a massive, unaccountable scale. Any congressman or senator who specified these boondoggles/wastes of money should be thrown out of office and put in jail. Idiotic beyond belief.
No wonder so many Californians are moving to Oklahoma!
Gosh, I didn’t see anything about this in the NYT. Wait, I’ll turn-on MSNBC, maybe they have a report.
C’mon Michele. You are just harping on a “few” bad apples here. The stimulus is working. Where are THOSE stories? I’m sorry, I couldn’t keep a straight face any more.
I noticed that continued funding of Congress wasn’t on the list. The ultimate in government waste.
I believe all the dollars spent on “stimulus” are being intentionally wasted. It is the path to economic meltdown, opening the path for our government to cement itself as a permanent tyrant with its iron boot on our necks.
b-cat, I am a little more cynical. The whole point of the stimulus was to enrich Democrat contributors. The whole point of the auto industry takeover and restructuring has been to enrich Democrat contributors. It’s Chicago-on-the-Potomac.
ditto b-cat. Everyone is saying “why is he doing this? It doesn’t make any sense?” Well, yeah it does, if you want to tear down and rebuild your own damn way…ah huh it does!
Off topic and I apologize. We need a thread on this!! I just got this from Drudge…huge headline.
Happyscrapper, I am sure you posting that is racist or something
Off topic AND racist. I’m doomed. MM, please don’t kick me out!
I agree h.s. What a crock of horse biscuits! The GOP needs to take strong action immediately, including lawsuits for equal time.
one good conservative shining the spotlight on the cockroaches pretending to represent the voters, while all they are doing is ripping them off.
That’s the problem:
These cockroaches are representing their tax-eating constituent voters; and they do it by ripping off taxpayers.
Objection! Offering facts not in evidence (do lawyers really talk like that?). He is in the process of being fired for abuse of his authority, according the the local US attorney.
Then you can spot check the report. The first claim comes from an excellent news article. The federal government gives the town money so that it can pay more for its sewage plant. The cost to the town doesn’t change, but…
And utility rates are going up because of a State of Oklahoma rule, not because of stimulus money.
Keep us informed and have a cool towel ready in case you get the vapors. PMSNBC has been known to caused honest folks digestive problems t
LGM, you should really try READING the articles you post. The cost over-runs are due to FEDERAL requirements. In this case the ARRA funding was actualy LESS that the federal requirements cost thus forcing higher rates on the tax payers.
sonofdy – I was going to respond to lgm’s post, but really they are getting so over the top ridiculous, what’s the point.
sonofdy (#23)
The cost to the town barely changed. They pay more and are compensated for the difference. The guy in charge accepted the funds for a reason.
There’s more than one individual using that blogname.
I wonder which personality of Sybil posted #21….
LGM, read your own article. Is that too much to ask? The costs increased by 2 MILLION dollars!!!
You claim the cost increase is due to state regulations when the article CLEARLY states that they are FEDERAL regulations.
BTW on the obamacare part 3 thread, I posted 3 articles proving you wrong about scarcity of doctors in canada, france, and germany.
This crap just keeps getting worse and worser (I’m pretty sure there is no such word as worser…)and people ask me why I’m for term limits!! Even if it’s a dollar, these corrupt career politians (notice I did not say they are representatives) are ACCOUNTABLE even to the last dime. Where’s the RNC on this? Why aren’t they speaking out? I’ve had it with the lot of them.
OBAMA: “Shut up and do what I tell you to do.”
Sounds like a mob tactic. I could swear I saw this in an episode of the Sopranos. They made business owners order stuff they didn’t need.
Oh wait. Obama spent time in Chicago. It’s all starting to make sense now.
When do we start calling this extorted “stimulus” money what it really is: Democrat Party Investment Funds.
The timing and the targets tell all.
HARRR!!
LGM…. you really need to prepare better propaganda. It didn’t take long to shoot holes in that nonsense you tried to pass off
Good job sonofdy.
They’re like drug dealers! Get you hooked on the free stuff, then twist you when you come back for more!
YES!! Sen. Coburn….this is more like it. Now, if only the rest of the Republicans would speak out they just might get some money from me. Until then….
They are too busy talking about how they need to get some leadership and figure out what direction the party should take. D’0h – they chew on something until there is no flavor left. If they quit talking, then they may have to actually do something and we can’t have that now can we.
We all know the stimulus was never about jobs, right?
That said, Coburn needs to get a grip about #3. Most rural communities are going to be forced to pay for this but they will receive absolutely no benefit from the so-called stimulus. Neither my town, nor my county will receive a dime but you can bet your @ss the tax collectors will be right on time. Frankly, I’m glad to see a few bucks in this trillion dollar boondoggle actually put to good use. It’s probably one of the few actual worthwhile projects in that state.
Question for the all caps crowd: why did they accept the money? Hint: start by reading the quote from the article I posted.
LGM: right after YOU read the srticle.
Which you clearly didn’t. They would have saved 2 million dollars by not accepting the money and the utility bills would not have gone up.
You can find all kinds of info on Optima Lake. The most telling (besides the satellite photo that shows no lake) is this
This is just crazy. Note to lgm: quit getting your information from wikimedia.
Hope-a-Dope and the donks’ are making the same gamble that the Manhattan Project team did back in WWII: after an auditor went over the astronomical amounts being spent on the project, his final assessment was, “If it works, no one will question how much you spent; if it doesn’t, no one will be able to figure out what you were trying to do.”
If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, then having the Feds follow up fiscal catastrophes like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid with “Government Motors,” state-run banks and socialized medicine qualifies as Mega-Insanity.
The closest comparison I can come up with is someone applying for and then maxing-out a fistful of credit cards to throw a party that would’ve made the Emperor Caligula jealous, knowing full well in advance that he intends to declare bankruptcy.
. Oklahoma is blessed to have the two best Senators in DC. If only there were 98 more Senator Coburns and Inhofes.
This isn’t transparency. Transparency would be this same list of pork spending with the names of the legislators in whose districts these pork parties are playing out.
Name names or stfu. Name names and blow their names all over the internet.
Send the lists and names in press releases all over the internet. There are plenty of free services that would have this intel showing up on searches galore for many months to come.
Let’s get beyond the outrage and start hurling fireballs into the barn of this charlatan administration.
Bear1909 out.
“…..a new wastewater treatment plant results in higher utility costs for residents of Perkins, Oklahoma.”
Way before election day I decided that this sort of thing would be all part of the plan. A buck here, a buck there, move enough people off the taxpayer rolls and onto the dependent/subsidized rolls, and pretty soon you’ve got ‘em right where you want ‘em. They will find someway to dismiss or destroy Sen. Coburns findings, as well as him and others like him if they persist. It is getting to that point.
Hey Regulus…. Funny you should mention Caligula. It reminded me how he is said to have seated his horse in the senate. And to take Obama’s place in the senate, they seated a horse’s ass.
Aha! So, refering to the thread on Californication in Oklahoma. Its a devious plan: Liberal Californians are taking their marching orders from TEH ONE and moving in droves to OK, and other red states, just to subvert the political landscape. The goal is to overwhelm the native Oklahomans, turn the state blue, oust Inhoffe and Coburn by voting in senators and congress reps more inclined to do TEH ONE’s bidding!
I hear Obama wants to bulldoze large areas of urban blight. He can start with the Baron Of Gray Matter’s (lgm) district!
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Great post REGULUS #40. Your comparison of the wasteful “stimulus” spending (on the American Taxpayer’s money) is perfect–the bankruptcy is coming soon.
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John Bibb
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It’s nice to know that there is at least one person looking out for the rest of us. It’s always good to see common sense at work.
This report wont see the light of day on the major TV networks, or the print media, I guarantee it. Just another example of how a corrupt media is an existential threat to our democracy.
sonofdy said (#37):
No. The cost went up less than $2M and the feds put in $1.4M. Subtract and start over.
No. The article explains that utility rates went up because of state rules.
At least somebody in government is doing the thankless work of watching as this administration bulldozes this nation over an economic cliff into a Weimer Republic ash heap. Thank you, Sen. Coburn.
It would seem that, since these types of stimulus abuses go unreported in the MSM, most Americans will just shrug their shoulders, say, “ain’t that a shame but has nothing to do with me” or “you’re jumping to conclusions give Obummer a chance” (something I hear from many black residents in the overwhelming black community I live in).
No, pointing out these abuses to the immature Obummer voting blocs is “mean.” Yet abusing the American trust again and wasting our money is for the “public good.”
I’m beginning to think that if the money is there that Obummer will direct it at those who either a) least deserve it (like Mayor Johnson of Sacremento) b) contributed to his campaign and will get a reward, or c) get money that they neither requested or wanted in the first place.
What happens when there’s no money left or the bank of China closes? This is the question Americans should be asking themselves.
Regarding the ‘improvements’ on Optima Lake, I remember reading that OK would get over 1 mil for ‘Dam Improvements’, making it sound like the dam needed to be repaired. Since this is for a guard rail, I suggest that it be changed to ‘Damn improvements’.
If they would have tried to sell it as guard rail replacement, it would NOT have gone through!
My congressman claimed buying 5 city buses at $1.65 million stimulated the local economy.
I wrote and asked him how, since we do not manuafacture busses anywhere in the state, much less the district.
Ths silence was deafening.
This one line should have clued you in that they are federal requirements and not state…
But just to be even clearer…
LGM: See that little linky thing that you posted, open it and read it. If you do you will see that the talking points you got on whatever website you cut and paste from are out right lies.
Yes LGM, I am calling you a liar. You are being completely dishonest. Do I need to make it any clearer for you???
Sonofdy, it may not be clear to Sybil which of her personalities you are addressing.
So, you may not get a response.
Or,…you may get multiple responses.
I am addressing the one that thinks he his a math wizz. Not the one who thinks she is an easy teenage girl out to have fun with a bottle of vodka and the football team.
Just kidding LGM.
I know, bad sonofdy, no cookie….
“Not the one who thinks she is an easy teenage girl out to have fun with a bottle of vodka and the football team.”
Did you hack into the computers of Dave Lettermans comedy writers? LOL!
I read recently about stimulus money being used here to fence of a long stretch of railroad tracks. I strongly object as it will interfer with the process of natural selection here. Gotta have some way to ensure people too stupid for the gene pool are allowed to remove themselves.
I said just kidding. I guess I needed the
for further cover…
Check.this.out.
He won’t meddle with Iran’s business but he’ll meddle in everyone elses’ business. Who the heck does he think he’s fooling.
As the oblivous american middle class draws nearer to the poor house