Everyone knows that governments are wasteful when it comes to money. And of course, none of these bizarre expenses are anything when compared to the big payments of social security, healthcare, etc. So, although not spending $76 million to round up wild horses would be a great thing, putting a stop to it wouldn’t really make much of a dent in the budget. At the very least, however, we can laugh at the incompetence of bureaucracy. These are the 25 of the most baffling ways the American government is spending its money.
25
The Department of Interior spends $76 million every year to round up wild horses that roam on public land
24
From 2009 to 2013 the US government has spent $1.1 million on puppets. This includes everything from puppet shows to puppet related research. ($200,000 to University of Central Florida for researching "Efficient Control and Transmission of Digital Puppetry)
23
The current administration has spent $400,000 on oil paintings of obscure government officials
22
Taxpayers are spending $5.5 million to send professional athletes around the world for what the government calls "sports diplomacy"
21
As part of a $350,000 National Science Foundation study, researchers found that golfers were more successful when they envisioned a bigger hole on the putting green.
20
The IRS spent $60,000 on a film parody of “Star Trek” and a film parody of “Gilligan’s Island”.
19
Over the past 15 years, a total of approximately $5.25 million has been spent on hair care services for the U.S. Senate.
18
During 2012, the federal government spent 15 million dollars to help the Russians recruit nuclear scientists.
17
The U.S. government spent 27 million dollars to teach Moroccans how to design and make pottery in 2012.
16
The U.S. government is spending approximately 3.6 million dollars a year to support former presidents such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
15
The Obama family trip to Africa cost at least $60 million
14
In 2011, the National Institutes of Health spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.
13
The U.S. Agency for International Development spent 10 million dollars to create a version of “Sesame Street” for Pakistani television.
12
In 2011, the federal government gave $550,000 toward the making of a documentary about how rock and roll contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.
11
At this point, China is holding over a trillion dollars of U.S. government debt. But that didn’t stop the United States from sending 17.8 million dollars in foreign aid to China in 2011.
10
The National Science Foundation recently gave a whopping $697,177 to a New York City-based theater company to produce a musical about climate change.
9
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has spent $300,000 to encourage Americans to eat caviar.
8
NASA spends close to a million dollars a year developing a menu of food for a manned mission to Mars even though it is being projected that a manned mission to Mars is still decades away.
7
The U.S. government spent $505,000 “to promote specialty hair and beauty products for cats and dogs” in 2012.
6
The government spend $325,000 to see what would happen when snakes came face to face with a robot squirrel (known fondly as robosquirrel)
5
NASA spent $1.6 million developing video games
4
The USDA gave Pepsi, the world's largest snack food producer, $1.3 million to build a yogurt factory in New York
3
During 2012, the National Science Foundation spent $516,000 on the creation of a video game called “Prom Week” which apparently simulates “all the social interactions of the event.”
2
The National Institutes of Health recently gave $666,905 to a group of researchers that is conducting a study on the benefits of watching reruns on television.
1
$10,000 of U.S. taxpayer money was actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes in Michigan
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