A Christmas gift to all Caveat Emptor readers. Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R) has published a nice white paper on the worst 2008 federal spending. Warning – this might bring your temper to a boil (it did mine) so wait until after all your festivities have completed so as to not ruin your Christmas holiday.
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Many of the programs are less ridiculous in their projected use (everyone likes municipal parks) than in the fact that the money ends up going nowhere. But some of the programs are just unfairly targeted; the Cleveland Salsa growing program is actually incredibly well-known and effective at its goal of diverting at-risk-youth. While 9K a student might seem expensive, we easily spend over that in juvenile incarceration, of which Coburn says little to nothing about. In fact the consistent picking on diversionary programs throughout the article makes one question how intimate Coburn is with the sheer expense and waste that are most state Juvenile Justice systems.
This is not to give a free pass on diversionary programs that are ill managed or not proven to be effective; there were a number of programs in the 80′s such as the SEED project of wilderness and harsh rehabilitation camps that were atrocious. But idle hands are the devil’s playground, and without diversionary programs simply telling kids to “Be good” when their neighborhoods are flush with drugs, boarded up stores, and no jobs, is a little ridiculous.