Your tax dollars at work

One useful thing about the sequestration debate is that it sparked a conversation about all the ways the federal government wastes your money. Everytime President Barack Obama claims there is simply no place to cut the budget without doing great harm, another example pops up to expose the absurdity of that statement.
Two of my favorites: Obamaphones and bureaucrat portraits.
The government is now spending $2.2 billion a year to buy cell phones for $12.5 million low income people and to fund their monthly minutes. That’s up from $775,000 when Obama took office. The money comes from a $2.75 universal service charge levied on every phone bill.
It has been labeled the most wasteful of government programs because there is very little record keeping or accountability. Because the money is there, the phones are passed out without verification of income and the monthly bills keep being paid without anyone checking eligibility. Investigations have turned up examples of individuals with 10 to 20 phones, and more, all paid for by the taxpayers. The abuse is well-documented, but so far neither congress nor president have moved to end it.
The government also continues to commission portraits of bureaucrats even though Obama claims there’s so little discretionary money available he’s had to cancel public White House tours (though not his own golf trips.)
Over the past two years, the government has spent $400,000 on paintings of cabinet officers, including most recently $40,000 for a portrait of out-going EPA Chief Lisa Jackson and $22,500 for one of Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack.
Asked about the frivolous expenditure from a department budget that Vilsack contends can no longer cover forest fire prevention, the secretary called it a “low ball” issue. Not so low ball if you’re the poor sucker who’s entire tax bill for the next few years will go toward paying for the portrait.
A government that would spend $400,000 on paintings of bureaucrats while running up a $1 trillion deficit is not one that respects taxpayer money. So let’s not give it any more.