By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A new report is revealing even more wasteful pet projects in the vastly unpopular $862 billion stimulus bill that many believe may have extended the recession rather than shorten it as intended.
ABC News is reporting that the Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John McCain (R-AZ) released a report highlighting 100 stimulus projects they say have “questionable goals,” are “being mismanaged or were poorly planned” and are even “costing jobs and hurting small businesses.”
One of these projects involves the award of $71,623 in stimulus funds to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center to a study called “Monkeys Getting High for Science” which will study how cocaine affects monkeys.
Another earmark awards $1 million to the California Academy of Sciences to fund research into exotic ants found in the Southwest Indian Ocean Islands and East Africa.
The stimulus bill also includes $300,000 for research at Wake Forest University into how yoga might affect the severity of hot flashes in breast cancer survivors.
Oil giant BP, who owes billions to the Gulf coast region after a massive oil spill, is getting $175 million in stimulus funds to build a California power plant.
The U.S. Forest Service in Washington state will receive half a million to replace windows in a visitor center at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument that is not even open to the public.
“I think all of them are waste,” Sen. McCain told ABC News about the projects. “I think none of them really have any meaningful impact on creating jobs. And, of course, some are more egregious than others but all of them are terrible.”
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