I need some help coming up with a list of really big government boondoggles. I’m not talking about the one million bucks in pork that some congressmen got for his local university a few years back to study worms, I’m looking for the really big stuff.
I’m talking the scale of the supercolliding superconductor -with hundreds of millions spent, billions over budget, years behind schedule, and we were still not sure the thing would work (up until it was cancelled).
Ideally, the failures would involve high technology that didn’t pan out, and may have been cancelled before things got out of hand. Or maybe not.
I think the hottest one currently is the NMD (Star Wars) project. There is no provable need and it isn’t likely to work (in spite of the last (doctored?) test).
I remember scandals in the past involving the C5A and the M1 Abrams tank. You might check into those also, unless they are too old for your project.
International Space Station “Alpha”. Was originally claimed to be a boon for science and a jumping-off point to Mars. Now untold billions over budget, and its scope is cut down so much that there will be no useful science done. In fact, it’s been stealing money from NASA’s unmanned science programs for years. You can forget manned missions to Mars, too.
IIRC, between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, Congress (or the Navy) kept pumping millions of dollars into some gigantic sailing warship that was obsolete the moment it was finished – if it was ever finished. I forget the name (began with a “C”?..), but someone will come along with it soon I’m sure.
Then there was the “Tweed” Court House in NYC – a municipal money pit if ever there was one. But that was out and out corruption, not mere mismanagement. Nearly bankrupted the city’s treasury, though. I can supply more details if you want 'em.
In Illinois they once spent a quarter of a million or so studying owl vomit. If you want the Federal government, there’s always the career of Robert Byrd. He must’ve wasted billions upon billions of our tax dollars on pointless crap for West Virginia. Also, the Department of the Interior once spent 100 million dollars on a chainsaw. Actually, they bought three for 100 mil apiece. Then there was Vietnam, not only cash but lives were spent on that fiasco. And, in light of the now extinct non-Social Security surplus, I’d have to say the Bush tax cut ranks up there as well. But I’d have to disagree with Mjollnir. Anyone who has driven in Boston knows the Big Dig is a must. It’s overpriced, but necessary.