Sen. William Proxmire and his Golden Fleece Award are gone, but we still have Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and his less poetically titled "worst cases of government waste":
"Politicians in Washington outdid themselves in 2008, wasting taxpayer money in ways and amounts once thought unimaginable -- all without blushing. So outrageous was the spending, an outside observer would be forced to think that not only do Americans love to pay taxes, but that the federal budget was in a state of perpetual surplus."
One of the smallest amounts is the most eyebrow-raising one -- $15,000 to provide voice mail for the homeless - but I'm also sort of fond of the $3.2 million on a blimp the Pentagon does not want. $350 billion is the estimate of how much is lost wach year to waste, fraud and abuse. Almost seems like small potatoes these days, doesn't it?
