Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) plans to following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Senator Tom Coburn, by releasing an annual efficiency report similar to Coburn’s annual waste book.
Lankford’s book, titled “Federal Fumbles” will include examples of wasteful spending by the federal government, and also policy solutions. The book is expected to be released after Thanksgiving.
Lankford released a teaser trailer in anticipation of the report that highlights one of the ways in which the federal government waste’s taxpayer dollars. The video suggests that the federal government spent taxpayer dollars to fund the production of a silent version of Shakespeare.
In July, the Wall Street Journal reviewed one of the taxpayer funded silent plays and concluded that a Shakespeare play “without puns is like French cooking without butter.”
“The latest Shakespeare fashion, at least in the Washington area, is to invite people to a feast of language and serve nothing but grunts, grimaces, and grins—with a few gyrations thrown in for dessert,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s James Bovard.
“The fact that many Washingtonians consider Silent Shakespeare an improvement rather than an oxymoron reflects unkindly on the capital’s cultural pretensions,” he added. “But perhaps we should not be surprised that the city that pioneered obfuscation is now exalting expunging English altogether.”
Lankford’s report will also detail many of the burdensome regulations that are imposed upon Americans by the federal government. Lankford has been an advocate in Congress for reducing federal regulations. Lankford and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) launched a bipartisan initiative, #CuttheRedTape, which provides Americans a central location to share with members of Congress their concerns about regulations.
Lankford also has three regulatory improvement bills in the Senate right now. The Senator worked with Heitkamp (D-ND) to introduce bills that would provide accountability and transparency to the regulatory process.