‘Turtles on a treadmill’: Joni Ernst blasts ludicrous government waste in scathing Senate speech by Brad Polumbo
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/turtles-on-a-treadmill-joni-ernst-blasts-ludicrous-government-waste-in-scathing-senate-speech
The dysfunction of the federal government is almost humorous until one remembers that we taxpayers are the ones footing the bill for the state’s foolishness.
Of course, few lawmakers in Washington actually seem to care, as both parties’ establishments have made peace with bloated budgets and sky-high deficits so long as their pet projects and interests get funded. Sen. Joni Ernst appears to be one of the rare and welcome exceptions, reminding us of her willingness to fight for fiscal conservatism with a scathing Senate speech Wednesday afternoon.
The Iowa Republican drew a spotlight to one particularly egregious example of waste, a taxpayer-funded study that blew almost a million dollars putting turtles on treadmills, both dead and alive, then comparing their speeds. And it’s not like this is some one-off fluke: The federal government spends taxpayer money on everything from scaring monkeys to the point of brain damage to funding the Pakistani film industry to subsidizing Serbian cheese production.
“Your tax dollars actually paid for a study that put turtles on treadmills,” Ernst lamented. “To no one’s surprise, it turns out that turtles are really, really slow. That’s what our tax dollars went to.”
“Now, how many of your tax dollars went to this study, exactly? Your guess is as good as mine … because there is no legal obligation for most federal agencies to disclose the price of government projects — even though the American taxpayers are paying for them,” the senator railed. “Folks, this is your money: So, shouldn’t you have a right to know how it’s being spent?”
She concluded:
Ernst is right in all of these points, and thank goodness we still have a few people in Congress who actually care about the waste of taxpayer money. The senator makes an important point about transparency, too, as the egregious waste that she and others have highlighted is really just the tip of the iceberg.
Ernst’s bill, the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act, requires the federal government to submit a list each year to Congress of all the taxpayer-financed projects that are $1 billion (or more) over budget or at least five years behind schedule. It’s, quite frankly, ridiculous beyond belief that this isn’t already required. How many billions have been wasted by the federal government without our knowledge?
If the turtles-on-treadmills fiasco shows us anything, it’s that the full range of government waste is likely beyond our wildest imaginations. (Example: Yes, they really measured the speed of dead turtles.) It’s time to expose it and stop the exploitation of taxpayers once and for all.
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