excerpt from High Alert: How the Internet Reformation is causing a financial hurricane – and how to profit from it:
U.S. Government Overspending in the 2000s:
• $23 billion on pork (grants to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, bridges to nowhere, etc.)
• $20 billion in unspecified overpayments. (2001)
• $3.3 billion in overpayments from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, over 10% of the department’s total budget. (2001)
• $100 million on unused Defense Department tickets.
• $2 billion to farmers to not farm their land.
• $12 billion to $30 billion on farm subsidies to wealthy farmers and agribusiness.
• $60 billion on corporate welfare versus $43 billion on homeland security.
• Millions in unnecessary public works projects from Army Corps of Engineers.
• $600 million in food stamp overpayments.
• $120 million school lunch overpayments.
• $800 million veterans program overpayments.
• $1 billion from poor tracking of student loan recipients.
• $7 billion owed by Medicare contractors to the federal government.
• A White House review of just a sample of the federal budget identified $90 billion spent on programs deemed ineffective, marginally adequate, or operating under a flawed purpose or design.
• The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” book identifying $140 billion in potential spending cuts.