Funding Our Own Bankruptcy

[Terri]

By Doug Patton
January 22, 2008

William Proxmire represented the state of Wisconsin in the United States Senate from 1957 to 1989. His last decade in office, Proxmire became famous for issuing his "Golden Fleece Awards" identifying wasteful government spending. Some of these awards included a National Science Foundation grant funding a study on why people fall in love; a Justice Department study on why prisoners wanted to get out of jail; a National Institute of Mental Health study of a Peruvian brothel; and a Federal Aviation Administration study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses.

Federal government waste has become legendary in Washington. Over the years, tales of stupid projects funded by our tax dollars have become so commonplace the American taxpayer has gone from furious to numb and back again. But when specific waste is brought to our attention, especially in times of war and economic distress, we tend back toward fury. I know I did when I read about Jamie O'Shea, an "artist" at the Bemis Center for the Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska.

More