Going off Isaac’s last post (Don’t Be Surprised), here is another thing to not be surprised about when it comes to government: waste. You may, however, get mad when you read Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) latest oversight report on wasteful spending, “2008: Worst Waste of the Year.” Here are some examples of how the Federal government spends your hard-earned tax dollars:

• $188,000 for Lobster Institute in Maine, home of the “LobsterCam”
• $1 million for bike paths on Louisiana levees while levees await basic repairs
• $2.4 million for a retractable shade canopy at a park in West Virginia
• $24.6 million for the National Park Service’s 100th year birthday in 2016 - 8 years early
• $3.2 million on a blimp the Pentagon does not want
• $367,000 wasted by a Texas school board on items like an inflatable alligator and under-the-sea waterslide, among other things
• $5 million for a bridge to a zoo parking lot in St. Louis
• $9,000 for a non-functioning airplane-shaped gas station in Tennessee
• $300,000 for specialty potatoes for high-end restaurants

Another homegrown gem from the report:

• Renovating Old Tiger Baseball Stadium – Detroit ($4 million)

“In 2000, the Detroit Tigers baseball team moved out of Tiger Stadium after calling it home for eighty-eight years. Demolition of the stadium was well underway when the decision was made to stop, due to the efforts of the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, an organization formed to preserve the semi-demolished remains as a ‘public park, youth sports venue, and destination for baseball fans.’ Fortunately for the conservancy, taxpayers are now coming through in the bottom of the ninth with a $4 million federal grant to renovate the old stadium, in addition to several ‘federal tax credits.’ One city developer, noting that the value of the land would be greater if the stadium were cleared away, remarked, ‘To try to raise money to just hold on to a portion of an old stadium might not be easy.’”