My 2 Cents: Rep. Steve Russell Takes Over Where Sen. Coburn Left Off

Freshman Oklahoma Congressman Steve Russell of Del City has taken over where Senator Tom Coburn left off. Russell has published his own booklet on wasteful government spending.

He says he did it in the spirit of Senator Coburn and to keep his work alive.

Russell is a former Army Lt. Colonel, so not surprisingly several of the 10 examples he gives in his ‘Waste Watch' are related to wasteful spending involving the military and foreign aid.

There's a half million dollar construction project granted to an Afghan company to build a mock village that Afghan forces could use to train in. Problem is, the first time it rained it started melting, basically, because there wasn't enough clay in the bricks.

‘International Relief and Development,' a federal contractor hired to help the US help Iraq and Afghanistan rebuild their countries after the wars, spent a million dollars on swanky retreats for their employees.

Defense spent $15.4 million storing items with zero-demand over the past five years, like giant gears for the USS Enterprise Aircraft carrier, which was mothballed three years ago.

And this one was only $15,000 thousand dollars, but really? The EPA is working with the University of Tulsa to modify hotel guests' water usage habits, by creating an app allowing them to monitor their hotel water usage.

Our tax money at rest.

I'm Kelly Ogle and that's My 2 Cents.