Mr. President, I am back here for the 44th edition of ``Waste of the Week.'' I am starting to enjoy this, and I hope someone else is, but what we don't enjoy is the fact that the government is wasting taxpayer money. We have been documenting this for 44 weeks now, and we have come up with a significant total that is approaching $200 billion of waste. People get up every morning, go to work--put in a hard-day's work if they have a job--try to save money so they can get the mortgage paid each month, get the insurance covered, get the gas tank filled up in the car, and hopefully save a little money for their kids' education. But every time they get a paycheck at the end of the week, they look at it and see deductions for this, that, and everything, such as State taxes, Federal taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes, such as the tax at the pump, and on and on it goes. You can't go to a grocery store, clothing store, or any retail store without getting a tax slapped on everything you buy. That money comes to Washington as a Federal tax, and at the very least, the taxpayer is due careful use of their hard-earned tax dollars to fund the Federal Government. There are essential functions that the Federal Government and only the Federal Government can deal with--States participate with the payment of interstate highways, along with some Federal support-- and one of those functions is national defense.…
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Mr. President, I return to the floor now for the 47th week for the 47th edition of the ``Waste of the Week.'' I highlight documented examples of waste, fraud, and abuse of hard-earned taxpayers' dollars that come to the Federal Government…





