Meat on a Stick: USDA Places $170 Million Order

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While campaigning in Iowa, President Obama announced today that his administration will be using taxpayer money to have the USDA “purchase as much as $170 million of pork, chicken, lamb and catfish in attempt to alleviate the burden put on U.S. farmers hurt by drought.”  The President also urged Congress to pass a farm bill – something that has been stalled in the House of Representatives because of the battle to cut wasteful spending.  While passing a farm bill is necessary, in recent times, the massive legislation has been used as a vehicle for special interests and corporations to  smuggle millions of dollars in new spending through Congress undetected.

On top of that, a new inspector general audit found that the USDA spent $2 million taxpayer dollars on an intern program that hired only one intern, along with $3 million spent on technology hardware that was “never used” and $235,000 on a project that was later cancelled.   According to reports, these programs were part of a larger $63 million failure to manage 16 different projects intended to protect the USDA from IT security threats.
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