PHOENIX, July 25, 2011- Have you ever thought about what exactly your hard earned taxpayer dollars pay for?
Sure you know it pays the presidents salary, but have you ever wondered about the ‘extreme, crazy’ things you pay for?
We’ll, here are ten crazy things your taxpayer dollars went to.
Museum Of Neon Signs:
In Las Vegas, Nevada, $1.8 million went to build a ‘museum of neon signs.’ The purpose of the museum is to preserve old neon signs that are no longer in use.
‘Recession Themed’ Video Game:
At Dartmouth University in New Hampshire, $137,530 went to a professor to create a video game that simulated a recession.
“Green energy updates” To A Building That Has Not Been Used In A Decade:
At a park in California, a building received $440,000 in federal funds to add, “Green energy upgrades.” However, the building hasn’t been used in over a decade.
Video Game Research:
Researchers at the University of California were granted $3 million so they could play video games such as World of Warcraft, to “study emerging forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life can help organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace.”
Cows Belching and Flatulence:
Associated Press
The U.S. Department of Agriculture granted the University of New Hampshire $700,000 to study the methane gas emissions from cow flatulence and belching.
Why Americans Voted The Way They Did In The Presidential Election:
$2.3 million were awarded to the University of Michigan and Stanford University to answer the question, “Why did America vote as it did on Election Day.”
They were also awarded a grant to conduct the same study after the 2012 election.
Studying Monkey’s Business:
The National Science Foundation granted $168,766 in federal funds to Columbia University in New York, to study the sexual behavior of wild blue monkeys by analyzing their feces in Africa.
This isn’t the first time it has been awarded federal funding for this project. In 2006, the university was awarded $276,219 for the same study.
Congressional Records Printed Daily:
This year, Congress spent $28.5 million to print paper versions of the Congressional Record. These records are printed everyday and are rarely used.
The Government Printing Office has said that 4,551 records are printed daily and most of the records go straight to the trashcan.
Shrimp Treadmills:
Three million dollars went to a study to see if sick shrimp had the same endurance as healthy shrimp on a treadmill.
A Census Commercial:
$2.5 million tax payer dollars paid for a census commercial during the 2011 Super Bowl in January.
If you add up all of the above, it costs $42,822,515 to the taxpayer.
So when congress and the president are debating over what to cut, use the list above as a reference.
Email Henry D’Andrea at tips@politicons.net and visit his Conservative blog Politicons. Follow @TheHenry
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