Today’s Taxpayer News!
Costly questions: The National Endowment for the Humanities is spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in an attempt to answer timeless philosophical questions such as “what is the meaning of life?” and “why are people bad?”. The NEH budget runs at about $150 million per year. The Washington Examiner has more.
Failure to navigate: As the new healthcare exchanges still face tech difficulties, the Department of Health and Human Services is adding $13 million to the “Navigator” program that is supposed to help uninsured Americans traverse the new health exchanges. However, even before the program earned a raise, over half of Americans don’t know what the exchanges are and HHS has still refused to release a number of actual enrollees. More details at the Gardner News.
Pricey political food: Members of Cleveland area city councils have spent into the thousands on pre-meeting meals and snacks and using taxpayer money to do so. One council president defended the meals saying, “It is an incidental expense that is well within our authority.” The Cleveland Plain-Dealer has more details.