The United States Government: World Power, Fiscal Naivete The United States government is one of the biggest in the world. Not in reference to the fact that it is one of the biggest land masses in the world, but referring to the fact that the government offers many services to its people while spending gross amounts of taxpayer dollars. It spends trillions of dollars on defense, housing, space exploration, and transportation, to name a few. Many of these services are wasteful in their policies. The American taxpayer would be amazed and outraged at how their government wastes their hard-earned money.Many people are very fond of the idea of The International Space Station that is currently under co-construction by NASA and other space contractors. But ABC Nightline reported that the project is going to cost $22 billion more than NASA’s original $8 billion dollar estimate years ago. And in March of 1998, NASA tried to hide $6 million worth of its over-budget spending on the project. This isn’t all of NASA’s spending problems. According to a news release from Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) that “the NASA Administrator to require NASA employees to fly commercial flights to Moscow instead of paying up to $20,000 per seat on chartered aircraft.” NASA ended up spending $3 million dollars on the commercial flights in just nine months; about ten times what it should be spending.Sen. Thompson also remarked in the report: “Despite years of budgetary constraints, agencies still do not operate in the most efficient manner, and I will be looking for ways to save taxpayer dollars and deliver the best government for the least amount of money.” The U.S Department of Housing and Development (HUD) found out in 1996 that the Baltimore Public Housing Authority (PHA), who had received $52 million in operating subsidies, bought eight new Chevy Blazers for its managers. The PHA did this in spite of the fact tha...
