Coburn’s 2013 ‘Wastebook’ Features Brothels, NASA and Senate ‘Lifestyle Training’
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., wants Congress to stop spending money on things he deems unnecessary — such as “looking for signs of intelligent life in Congress” by giving NASA $3 million to set up a workshop in Washington, D.C., explaining the legislative branch.
Coburn, the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released his annual “Wastebook” Tuesday, and if you like a little sass and a lot of cuts in government spending, this is the book for you. Of course, it does not outline a path to make structural changes on either the tax or spending side, but it does highlight approximately 100 projects that cost the government $30 billion, the purpose of which Coburn questions.
A sample of some of the items Coburn would like to eliminate?
- A $3 million grant to NASA for a week-long seminar in Washington, in conjunction with Georgetown University, to explain how government works to its civil employees
- $17.5 million in tax breaks to Nevada’s legal brothels
- $1.7 million to the Senate Office of Education and Training for “lifestyle training” for staffers, including classes such as “The Benefits of a Good Night Sleep”
- $65 million of emergency Superstorm Sandy funds spent on commercials (Coburn’s lookin’ at you, Chris Christie!)
Though many of these initiatives do not get rolled back after being highlighted by Coburn, the annual reports typically end up serving a purpose for Republicans beyond talking points, because the Oklahoma senator’s staff is one of the few that goes line-by-line through government spending and finds items to cut. In 2011, when the so-called supercommittee was searching for ways to find more than $1 trillion of savings, Republicans turned to Coburn’s report from that year for ideas, in part because they liked them, but also because they were some of the few items readily available.
You can read the full “Wastebook” report here.