2008 Government Waste

Amanda Carpenter | December 12, 2008 10:00 AM

These sorts of lists just don't seem to ever end.

Sen. Tom Coburn has released yet another hard-hitting report taking Congress to task for wasting millions and millions of your tax dollars on pork-barrel projects.

“As we look back on federal spending for 2008, American taxpayers will laugh, and then cry at how their elected officials spent their hard-earned dollars. Not even these tough economic times have dulled Congress’ ability to find new and creative ways to waste taxpayer dollars,” Dr. Coburn said.

These earmarks are among the worst projects funded this year:

$188,000 for Lobster Institute in Maine, home of the “LobsterCam”
$1 million for bike paths on Louisiana levees while levees await basic repairs
$2.4 million for a retractable shade canopy at a park in West Virginia
$24.6 million for the National Park Service’s 100^th year birthday in 2016 - 8 years early
$3.2 million on a blimp the Pentagon does not want
$367,000 wasted by a Texas school board on items like an inflatable alligator and under-the-sea waterslide, among other things
$5 million for a bridge to a zoo parking lot in St. Louis
$9,000 for a non-functioning airplane-shaped gas station in Tennessee
$300,000 for specialty potatoes for high-end restaurants