In case you’re filled with too much holiday cheer this Christmas season, the latest edition of Sen. Tom Coburn’s “Wastebook”, chronicling wasteful federal spending, is now available. You might just want to spike the egg nog and take a look. The dollar amounts aren’t always shocking, but the blatant waste of taxpayers’ money is. Number 12 on the list:
The Government Printing Office (GPO) is using a ―video game space mouse (and nearly $60,000 in taxpayer funds) to teach children the history of printing.
In September, the GPO released its first-ever comic book, ―Squeaks Discovers Type, in which Squeak the Space Mouse explores the history of the printed word, from cuneiform to the Internet age, and explains ―why printing is important.
The opening page features a school boy grumbling about the report he was assigned on the invention of printing, leading the superhero rodent to exclaim, ―He thinks printing is boring! This is a job for Squeaks!
Anticipating high demand, the office printed 5,500 copies of the title.
Even if the title sells out, it looks to be a money- loser: GPO sells the book for $5 a copy, recording an estimated $5.70 loss for every book sold. The GPO calls that loss a ―marketing expense,‖ part of its effort to educate the public on its mission.
Taxpayers – who footed the bill for the project – might have another name for it.