Senator Tom Coburn released a new report identifying 100 questionable stimulus projects. By offering 100 examples of questionable stimulus projects, worth $5.5 billion, this report does not attempt to prove that the stimulus is not working. Rather, the intent is to educate taxpayers, policymakers and the media on lessons that can be learned from some of the early missteps and prevent other questionable projects from moving forward. (Direct link to report)

As Congress debated the stimulus bill in February, there were significant concerns that billions of dollars would be wasted and the bill was rushed to passage without a single member of Congress reading it. This waste is troubling both for its short-term failure to put Americans back to work and for its long-term fiscal impact on the nation. Our current national debt exceeds $11 trillion and the Congressional Budget Office projects more than $1 trillion will be added per year to it for the next decade, in large part due to stimulus spending.

Top Ten Projects:

1. “Free” Stimulus Money Results in Higher Utility Costs for Residents of Perkins, Oklahoma 
2. FutureGen: The Stimulus Earmark that Wasn’t, Becomes the Costliest Pork Project in History 
3. Little-Used “Shovel-Ready” Bridges in Rural Wisconsin Given Priority Over Widely Used Structurally Deficient Bridges 
4. $800,000 for little-used Johnstown, Pennsylvania airport to repave a back-up runway; the “Airport for Nobody” Has Already Received Tens of Millions in Taxpayer dollars 
5. $3.4 Million for Wildlife “Eco-Passage” in Florida; Project Still May Take Years to Finish 
6. Nevada Non-Profit Gets Weatherization Contract After Being Fired For Same Work 
7. Non-Existent Oklahoma Lake in Line for Over $1 Million To Construct a New Guardrail 
8. Taxpayers Taken for a Ride: Nearly $10 Million to be Spent to Renovate a Century Old Train Station that Hasn’t Been Used in 30 Years 
9. Ten Thousand Dead People Get Stimulus Checks, Social Security Administration Blames a Tough Deadline 
10. Town of Union, New York, Encouraged to Spend Money It Did Not Request For a Homelessness Problem It Does Not Have

Click here to read an update following the release of the report.