Sen. Lankford reveals the worst wasteful spending by federal government
The Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma released his latest report on Monday detailing what he sees as the worst examples of wasteful spending by the federal government, unveiling Volume 6 of his Federal Fumbles report, as the national debt sits at a record $30 trillion.
The most recent edition of his football themed publication points to more than $10 trillion in examples of wasteful or duplicative spending, and it is a to-do list for me and my team, and it is also a status update for Oklahomans who are concerned about waste, fraud, and abuse of their tax dollars.
Lankford highlighted ten examples of government spending that he found most egregious, beginning with what he called President Biden's border boondoggle. President Biden was so determined to leave the border open, and he spent well over $2 billion to not build fencing, according to the report. Career professionals at the Department of Homeland Security DHS had recommended and recommended the wall on our border, but Biden paid millions of dollars for Department of Defense DOD contractors to build the wall, and to babysit the fence materials on the ground ready to be installed. After a year of public pressure, Biden agreed to close the gaps in the border fence. The report says that DHS plans to deploy robot dogs that cost anywhere from $90,000 to $150,000 a piece to patrol America's border with Mexico.
Lankford decried the National Institutes of Health's decision to grant millions of dollars to Peking University and the Chinese Center for Disease Control Prevention during the COVID 19 epidemic, and the National Endowment of the Humanities' move to give $120,000 to two authors who write books on Russian art.
Other wasteful spending examples include $15,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund an opera about monkeys, $500,000 for a New Hampshire ski club, $3 million for a fisherman's co-op in Guam, and the Biden administration's $30 million grant program that would help reduce the risks of smoking illicit substances, such as crack cocaine or crystal methamphetamine.
The U.S. debt stood at $18 trillion when Lankford launched his Fumbles report in 2015. That number has doubled over the past six years.
In addition to identifying wasteful spending, his report offers ways for the federal government to return to fiscal responsibility.
We need solutions to the issues we face, so Fumbles focuses on recommendations for how to make the tough decisions, not just talk about them, Lankford says.