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And not a single link to anything showing these expenditures.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcarlilesiu
Requested links. Now can we discuss this ridiculous waste?
Thirty-three minutes from the time of the OP, jc has info on most of the listed items.
The old man sent a link to a couple of websites as his "research".
It's pretty clear who's interested in the facts, and who's only interested in attempting to discredit the messenger, without any regard whatsoever for the facts, as it might make their guy or party look bad.
did you know that at least 15 of the most wasteful projects are at colleges and universities throughout the country? All of these programs account for $583,161,482 of your tax dollars.
Given that college students are facing 18% unemployment, it would be beneficial if these projects funded jobs for recent graduates. The only problem is that the job creation is minimal despite the millions of dollars lavished upon universities.
The College Waste Projects
1. 31.3 million to Corinthian Colleges, Inc.
Corinthian Colleges are a for-profit education company that has often been scrutinized and the focus of federal probes. According to Stimulus Checkup, 83 lawsuits have been leveled against them.
The 31.3 million was given through an increase in Pell Grants, which 70% of Corinthian students recieved.
2. $1.57 million to Penn State to look for dinosaurs in...Argentina
While looking for dinosaurs is cool and certainly helps further science, how does this create jobs or spur economic activity? The money used by Penn State will fund researchers to work in another country. Much of the $1.57 million will go to Argentina's economy not ours.
The team of four using this grant are researchers and professors with existing jobs. Also two of researchers are not employed in the United States.
3. $1.1 million to Oklahoma State University to study the role of grandparents in Alaska.
Funded through stimulus money funneled through the National Science Foundation, this grant will fund Professor Tammy Henderson and two new hires at OSU to travel to Alaska and study grandparents in rural, semi-urban and urban areas.
4. $950,000 to Arizona State University and the University of Arizona to study ants.
Through a partnership of the universities, this National Science Foundation grant will, "examine larval development, ant caste systems, and ―colony fitness. The University of Arizona will use the information to, 'develop ―a model [for ants] to determine the optimal strategy for distributing specialists in a variable work environment.'"
Through this project, 4.92 jobs will be saved. While we're questioning what a .92 job is, an article on AZCentral.com captures what you're probably thinking:
But some projects are head-scratchers, at least to critics. They involve arcane research; do not address immediate, essential public needs; or don't create or save many jobs. Such projects aren't taboo under the stimulus but have drawn fire from lawmakers who argue they do little to help the economy or industry.
5. $564,635 to Duke University to send undergraduates to Costa Rica for the summer
For the next five summers, lucky undergraduates will get a free trip to Costa Rica to study the rainforest. According to Stimulus Checkup:
Each year, ten students will participate in an eight-week program at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. Students will also be given a chance to experience Costa Rica‘s ―ecotourism‖ opportunities—a brochure likewise boasts, ―A short bus ride from there takes you to the capital city of San Jose, where you can experience the full variety of Tico‘ culture ad cuisine
Once again, this stimulus project will send Recovery dollars outside of the country to stimulate another economy.
Duke has also been tremendously successful in obtaining grants from the Recovery Act. They even created a web site to catalog all of their funding.
6. $389,357 to State University of New York-Buffalo to study young adults who drink malt liquor and smoke weed.
Funds will pay 100 test subjects $45 to keep a journal of their daily malt liquor drinking and marijuana smoking usages. According to researchers, "malt liquor consumption is an understudied topic."
While this grant will be putting a small amount of money into the US economy, it also encourages drug trafficking since it is illegal to purchase marijuana in the U.S. Other portions of this grant will be used to hire additional researchers.
The SUNY system also has its own web site devoted to Recovery grants.
7.$233,825 to UC-San Diego and Georgetown University to study exit polling in...Africa
Once again, stimulus funds will be used to stimulate economies in other countries. The project will send four graduate students and one undergraduate to Africa, which will, "result in a robust understanding of how Africans vote, which will in turn allow for a better targeting our external aid funds aimed at promoting democracy on the continent."
Just how many jobs does this create? According to StimulusWatch.org, this project will result in .17 full-time job (FTE) for the principal investigator, .19 FTE for graduate students at UCSD, .44 FTE for gradute student researchers at Georgetown and 7.29 FTE for polling workers a a sub-grant award in Africa.
Not only will this grant result in a couple hours of employment per week for select graduate students at UCSD and Georgetown, it will hire seven people in Africa. Where does the Recovery Act specifiy employment for people in Africa?
8.$221,355 to Indiana University to study why young men do not like using condoms
Stimulus Checklist reports that this study will:
...advance our understanding of…the role of cognitive and affective processes and condom application skills in explaining problems with condom use in young, heterosexual adult men, and to create ―education strategies tailored to the needs of individuals who have trouble using condoms effectively.
The National Institutes of Health notes that this project will show:
Consistent and correct use of condoms can be a highly effective method of preventing the transmission of HIV and many STIs, yet studies show that problems with condom use are common. This project is one of the first to examine under controlled conditions the role of cognitive and affective factors and condom skills in explaining condom use problems in young, heterosexual adult men.
9. $219,000 for a National Institutes of Health study examining the "hookup" behavior of female college students
This NIH study will examine the link between alcohol use and hooking up. Researchers at Syracuse University will recruit 500 income freshmen women and contact them monthly for a year to, "document sexual hookups, noting when there is alcohol involved."
The researchers could save $219,000 and just ask current college students about the link between alcohol and engaging in sexual activities.
Also note the design of the study. This requires 500 underage women to voluntarily detail their illegal activities on campus. Since freshmen students are typically under 21, any alcohol consumption is illegal. The study also requires young women to volunteer details about inebriated sexual encounters.
Michael Carey, the researcher behind the study told the Syracuse Post-Standard:
"I did not prepare an application to create jobs or stimulate the economy," he said. "I prepared an application of scientific study to address an important public health problem and I think that is a valuable contribution to society.
10. $210,000 to the University of Hawaii to study how honeybees learn
This grant, which hires one research assistant, will conduct, "behavioral experiments with honeybees focused on short-term memory, concept learning, and relational learning."
11.$150,00 to Carnegie Mellon University to develop super-football gloves
Football is undoubtedly important to many colleges but does developing the next generation in football gloves spur economic growth?
The Business Times reports:
Some of the government funding has also gone to what was clearly the domain of private enterprise. NanoGriptech, a company that is barely a year old, was given US$150,000 to develop technology mimicking the sticky feet of geckos - to ultimately produce better football gloves.
While it seems that $150,00 would go a long way towards developing a new type of glove, Stimulus Checkup reports:
Professor Metin Sitti with Carnegie Mellon University has already collected $450,000 in federal money for his project.166 While in the long run, Dr. Sitti is most interested in developing applications to help robots climb difficult surfaces, in the short run he is hopeful to use his adhesive materials for ―sports gloves specifically designed to provide increased grip to a football surface.
12. $95,000 at the University of Massachusetts-Boston to study pollen from the Viking age
This award is described as, "uising pollen to assess local environmental variation during the viking age." What it will do is hire a graduate assistant to count pollen grains that were collected from farms in Iceland. This data is supposed to shed light on how environmental changes effected the Viking Age.
According to David Williams, president of Citizens Against Government Waste told the Boston Globe, "People are scratching their heads because some of this doesn’t make sense. Studying pollen during the Viking Age isn’t going to create a lot of jobs and help the economy.’’
13. $49,818 to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks to attend the global warming conference in Alaska
Remember the Copenhagen conference that's been in the news? Stimulus funds are paying for 11 students and four teachers from the University of Alaska to attend the UN's Convention of Climate Change.
14. $30,000 to the University of Maryland to determine if meth is a rat aphrodisiac
Researchers will study if using methamphetamines, "gives female rats an overpowering desire to have sex."
The Baltimore Sun interviewed the university officials and the doctoral student, Mary K. Holder, who submitted the grant:
15. $8,408 to Florida Atlantic University to study if mice get drunk
This grant will examine the connection between rats and "spatial navigation" after they have consumed alcohol. Scientists designed this study after noticing that "...human who consume alcohol have trouble with 'navigation, memory, and attention."
I'd wager most expenditures are earmarks favoring senators and representatives. Don't want to show who 'cause it'd show the names of vocal senators/representatives against earmarks.
. . . . . . .
Aside from all that, it's the states who decide each individual county/city distribution. Feds dole out to the states, states dole out to counties/cities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by workingclasshero
9. Resurfacing a tennis court in Montana ($50,000)
BOZEMAN - Livingston city officials say the city spent over $21,000 in federal economic stimulus money to resurface its tennis courts last summer.
Bozeman's $50,000 plan to resurface its tennis courts this spring raised the ire of Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Schweitzer appeared at a Bozeman City Commission meeting last month to ask them to use the money elsewhere, but city officials declined and noted the state had approved the expenditure.
City Manager Ed Meece says a Billings company took about two weeks to resurface the courts in August. He says applying the state's formula for stimulus projects, the project created or sustained the equivalent of three-fourths of a job for one year.
Sarah Elliott is the governor's spokeswoman. She said she wasn't sure if Schweitzer knew about Livingston's tennis courts, but that he would argue it was not an appropriate use of stimulus money.
8. Study On Why Young Men Do Not Like Condoms ($221,355)
Indiana University professors received $221,355 in economic stimulus funds to study why young men do not like to wear condoms. The research will “advance our understanding of…the role of cognitive and affective processes and condom application skills in explaining problems with condom use in young, heterosexual adult men,” and to create “education strategies tailored to the needs of individuals who have trouble using condoms effectively.”
6. Sending 11 students and 4 teachers from an Arkansas university to the U.N. climate change convention in Copenhagen, using almost 54,000 lbs of carbon dioxide from air travel alone ($50,000)
well not arkansas, but alaska
Eleven students and four teachers from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks will be in attendance at the United Nations Convention of Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark using a nearly $50,000 stimulus grant to get there.371 While in Copenhagen, ―the students will meet with students and faculty from the Department of Eskimology at the University of Copenhagen, the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, the Indigenous People's Secretariat of the Arctic Council, and the Greenland Home Rule Government.‖372 In the end, the lesson learned by the students will be a mixed one: a trip from Alaska to Copenhagen, Denmark for all 15 passengers will result in the emission of 53,940 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air travel alone.373 In Fairbanks, that is the same amount of carbon emissions produced to heat and light approximately two single family homes for an entire year.374
Looks like I don't have to research, I guessed at least half right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 4Horsemen
Holy Tax Waste Batman can Obama be any more of an Epic Failure???
And Obama wasn't involved in any of it.
In the real world has there ever been a time when tax waste wasn't an issue somewhere in this country?
And all of this is what percentage of our expenses in just funding mercenaries in the Middle East? Not very high. All these sound like a proper use of Federal funding to me. Most went to small scale contractors and that is always useful. Better than sending it to financial executive bonuses any way.
did you know that at least 15 of the most wasteful projects are at colleges and universities throughout the country? All of these programs account for $583,161,482 of your tax dollars.
Given that college students are facing 18% unemployment, it would be beneficial if these projects funded jobs for recent graduates. The only problem is that the job creation is minimal despite the millions of dollars lavished upon universities.
The College Waste Projects
1. 31.3 million to Corinthian Colleges, Inc.
Corinthian Colleges are a for-profit education company that has often been scrutinized and the focus of federal probes. According to Stimulus Checkup, 83 lawsuits have been leveled against them.
The 31.3 million was given through an increase in Pell Grants, which 70% of Corinthian students recieved.
2. $1.57 million to Penn State to look for dinosaurs in...Argentina
While looking for dinosaurs is cool and certainly helps further science, how does this create jobs or spur economic activity? The money used by Penn State will fund researchers to work in another country. Much of the $1.57 million will go to Argentina's economy not ours.
The team of four using this grant are researchers and professors with existing jobs. Also two of researchers are not employed in the United States.
3. $1.1 million to Oklahoma State University to study the role of grandparents in Alaska.
Funded through stimulus money funneled through the National Science Foundation, this grant will fund Professor Tammy Henderson and two new hires at OSU to travel to Alaska and study grandparents in rural, semi-urban and urban areas.
4. $950,000 to Arizona State University and the University of Arizona to study ants.
Through a partnership of the universities, this National Science Foundation grant will, "examine larval development, ant caste systems, and ―colony fitness. The University of Arizona will use the information to, 'develop ―a model [for ants] to determine the optimal strategy for distributing specialists in a variable work environment.'"
Through this project, 4.92 jobs will be saved. While we're questioning what a .92 job is, an article on AZCentral.com captures what you're probably thinking:
But some projects are head-scratchers, at least to critics. They involve arcane research; do not address immediate, essential public needs; or don't create or save many jobs. Such projects aren't taboo under the stimulus but have drawn fire from lawmakers who argue they do little to help the economy or industry.
5. $564,635 to Duke University to send undergraduates to Costa Rica for the summer
For the next five summers, lucky undergraduates will get a free trip to Costa Rica to study the rainforest. According to Stimulus Checkup:
Each year, ten students will participate in an eight-week program at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. Students will also be given a chance to experience Costa Rica‘s ―ecotourism‖ opportunities—a brochure likewise boasts, ―A short bus ride from there takes you to the capital city of San Jose, where you can experience the full variety of Tico‘ culture ad cuisine
Once again, this stimulus project will send Recovery dollars outside of the country to stimulate another economy.
Duke has also been tremendously successful in obtaining grants from the Recovery Act. They even created a web site to catalog all of their funding.
6. $389,357 to State University of New York-Buffalo to study young adults who drink malt liquor and smoke weed.
Funds will pay 100 test subjects $45 to keep a journal of their daily malt liquor drinking and marijuana smoking usages. According to researchers, "malt liquor consumption is an understudied topic."
While this grant will be putting a small amount of money into the US economy, it also encourages drug trafficking since it is illegal to purchase marijuana in the U.S. Other portions of this grant will be used to hire additional researchers.
The SUNY system also has its own web site devoted to Recovery grants.
7.$233,825 to UC-San Diego and Georgetown University to study exit polling in...Africa
Once again, stimulus funds will be used to stimulate economies in other countries. The project will send four graduate students and one undergraduate to Africa, which will, "result in a robust understanding of how Africans vote, which will in turn allow for a better targeting our external aid funds aimed at promoting democracy on the continent."
Just how many jobs does this create? According to StimulusWatch.org, this project will result in .17 full-time job (FTE) for the principal investigator, .19 FTE for graduate students at UCSD, .44 FTE for gradute student researchers at Georgetown and 7.29 FTE for polling workers a a sub-grant award in Africa.
Not only will this grant result in a couple hours of employment per week for select graduate students at UCSD and Georgetown, it will hire seven people in Africa. Where does the Recovery Act specifiy employment for people in Africa?
8.$221,355 to Indiana University to study why young men do not like using condoms
Stimulus Checklist reports that this study will:
...advance our understanding of…the role of cognitive and affective processes and condom application skills in explaining problems with condom use in young, heterosexual adult men, and to create ―education strategies tailored to the needs of individuals who have trouble using condoms effectively.
The National Institutes of Health notes that this project will show:
Consistent and correct use of condoms can be a highly effective method of preventing the transmission of HIV and many STIs, yet studies show that problems with condom use are common. This project is one of the first to examine under controlled conditions the role of cognitive and affective factors and condom skills in explaining condom use problems in young, heterosexual adult men.
9. $219,000 for a National Institutes of Health study examining the "hookup" behavior of female college students
This NIH study will examine the link between alcohol use and hooking up. Researchers at Syracuse University will recruit 500 income freshmen women and contact them monthly for a year to, "document sexual hookups, noting when there is alcohol involved."
The researchers could save $219,000 and just ask current college students about the link between alcohol and engaging in sexual activities.
Also note the design of the study. This requires 500 underage women to voluntarily detail their illegal activities on campus. Since freshmen students are typically under 21, any alcohol consumption is illegal. The study also requires young women to volunteer details about inebriated sexual encounters.
Michael Carey, the researcher behind the study told the Syracuse Post-Standard:
"I did not prepare an application to create jobs or stimulate the economy," he said. "I prepared an application of scientific study to address an important public health problem and I think that is a valuable contribution to society.
10. $210,000 to the University of Hawaii to study how honeybees learn
This grant, which hires one research assistant, will conduct, "behavioral experiments with honeybees focused on short-term memory, concept learning, and relational learning."
11.$150,00 to Carnegie Mellon University to develop super-football gloves
Football is undoubtedly important to many colleges but does developing the next generation in football gloves spur economic growth?
The Business Times reports:
Some of the government funding has also gone to what was clearly the domain of private enterprise. NanoGriptech, a company that is barely a year old, was given US$150,000 to develop technology mimicking the sticky feet of geckos - to ultimately produce better football gloves.
While it seems that $150,00 would go a long way towards developing a new type of glove, Stimulus Checkup reports:
Professor Metin Sitti with Carnegie Mellon University has already collected $450,000 in federal money for his project.166 While in the long run, Dr. Sitti is most interested in developing applications to help robots climb difficult surfaces, in the short run he is hopeful to use his adhesive materials for ―sports gloves specifically designed to provide increased grip to a football surface.
12. $95,000 at the University of Massachusetts-Boston to study pollen from the Viking age
This award is described as, "uising pollen to assess local environmental variation during the viking age." What it will do is hire a graduate assistant to count pollen grains that were collected from farms in Iceland. This data is supposed to shed light on how environmental changes effected the Viking Age.
According to David Williams, president of Citizens Against Government Waste told the Boston Globe, "People are scratching their heads because some of this doesn’t make sense. Studying pollen during the Viking Age isn’t going to create a lot of jobs and help the economy.’’
13. $49,818 to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks to attend the global warming conference in Alaska
Remember the Copenhagen conference that's been in the news? Stimulus funds are paying for 11 students and four teachers from the University of Alaska to attend the UN's Convention of Climate Change.
14. $30,000 to the University of Maryland to determine if meth is a rat aphrodisiac
Researchers will study if using methamphetamines, "gives female rats an overpowering desire to have sex."
The Baltimore Sun interviewed the university officials and the doctoral student, Mary K. Holder, who submitted the grant:
15. $8,408 to Florida Atlantic University to study if mice get drunk
This grant will examine the connection between rats and "spatial navigation" after they have consumed alcohol. Scientists designed this study after noticing that "...human who consume alcohol have trouble with 'navigation, memory, and attention."
Even more evidence of STATES misusing government funds. NOT Obama or the stimulus.
You did not stipulate whether these funds were "stimulus" or "normal" gubment payouts or waste. This kind of silliness has been going on for 20+ years.
Looks like I don't have to research, I guessed at least half right.
And Obama wasn't involved in any of it.
In the real world has there ever been a time when tax waste wasn't an issue somewhere in this country?
Ultimately, the feds including Obama and the Congress are responsible for the spending since they are the ones delegating the money. Obama even created a "stimulus accountability czar". Seems to me Obama and Biden agree with me:
Before taking office, President-elect Barack Obama promised that when it comes to stimulus spending, "every American will be able to hold Washington accountable for these decisions by going online to see how and where their tax dollars are being spent."
The Obama Administration has emphasized the need to avoid fraud and waste. "This is a big deal," Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday at a conference with state officials on maximizing accountability in stimulus spending. "We have a responsibility to make sure that there is unprecedented transparency for the American people."
"Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made transparently, and informed by independent experts wherever possible. Every American will be able to hold Washington accountable for these decisions by going online to see how and where their tax dollars are being spent. And as I announced yesterday, we will launch an unprecedented effort to eliminate unwise and unnecessary spending that has never been more unaffordable for our nation and our children's future than it is right now."
Full Remarks of Obama’s Stimulus Speech - The Page by Mark Halperin - TIME.com (http://thepage.time.com/full-remarks-of-obamas-stimulus-speech/ - broken link)
Now, olesarge, are you ready to stop deflecting on the conversation at hand and actually discuss the waste and that the feds are accountable, or do you want to continue to derail the conversation in semantics to avoid having to defend President Obama?
In the real world has there ever been a time when tax waste wasn't an issue somewhere in this country?
Quote:
Originally Posted by theolsarge
Even more evidence of STATES misusing government funds. NOT Obama or the stimulus.
You did not stipulate whether these funds were "stimulus" or "normal" gubment payouts or waste. This kind of silliness has been going on for 20+ years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcarlilesiu
Ultimately, the feds including Obama and the Congress are responsible for the spending since they are the ones delegating the money. Obama even created a "stimulus accountability czar". Seems to me Obama and Biden agree with me:
Before taking office, President-elect Barack Obama promised that when it comes to stimulus spending, "every American will be able to hold Washington accountable for these decisions by going online to see how and where their tax dollars are being spent."
The Obama Administration has emphasized the need to avoid fraud and waste. "This is a big deal," Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday at a conference with state officials on maximizing accountability in stimulus spending. "We have a responsibility to make sure that there is unprecedented transparency for the American people."
"Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made transparently, and informed by independent experts wherever possible. Every American will be able to hold Washington accountable for these decisions by going online to see how and where their tax dollars are being spent. And as I announced yesterday, we will launch an unprecedented effort to eliminate unwise and unnecessary spending that has never been more unaffordable for our nation and our children's future than it is right now."
Full Remarks of Obama’s Stimulus Speech - The Page by Mark Halperin - TIME.com (http://thepage.time.com/full-remarks-of-obamas-stimulus-speech/ - broken link)
No, olesarge, are you ready to stop deflecting on the conversation at hand and actually discuss the waste and that the feds are accountable, or do you want to continue to derail the conversation in semantics to avoid having to defend President Obama?
Considering it's taken more than a year+ to even START, in most cases, to get bailout money back and all it's abuses that banks slide by with, it's going to take time to recoup whatever stimulus funds were wasted. Otherwise, your answer is at the top of this post.
Seems to me the Feds have a lot to do policing bailout money and stimulus money not to mention policing gubment contracts. I wouldn't mind being a government attorney on commission. I see job security for a very long time.
You all are pointing the finger in one direction when by your own admittance it should be pointed in a lot of directions. The fault for abuse is plainly in the states/counties/cities court.
You all are pointing the finger in one direction when by your own admittance it should be pointed in a lot of directions. The fault for abuse is plainly in the states/counties/cities court.
You ignore my entire post, with references showing promised accountability by Obama, and continue with your mantra.
I don't have time for moronic arguments.
You can't defend Obama so you deflect. Waste of time.
Im done. Iggy bin.
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