In a move that has left many people either scratching their heads in confusion, or just chuckling at its sheer stupidity, it has recently come to light that the IRS has spent $60,000 of your hard-earned taxpayer dollars to help fund two training videos for new agents on how to find tax evaders.

Originally brought to light by the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's oversight chairman, Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., R-La, not only do these videos deserve one of Captain Picard’s famous face-palms, it is a perfect insight to how Washington simply can’t help itself anymore when they have money in front of them. Instead of trying to save money where they can, the IRS seems content to spend your hard-earned money on videos meant to spoof Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island. Poorly too, I might add.

While on the surface $60,000 doesn’t seem like a lot of money compared to other wasteful Washington programs, here’s a graph that might put things into better perspective

Now, for their part, the IRS has come out with an apology of sorts, saying "The IRS recognizes and takes seriously our obligation to be good stewards of government resources and taxpayer dollars… There is no mistaking that this video did not reflect the best stewardship of resources." Anyone could have told them that.

It’s almost funny, in a tragic sort of way, how the agency in charge of taking your money seems all too willing and eager to spend and waste it.  While hard-working Americans continue to try and “live long and prosper” in a struggling economy, Washington is once again busy wasting their money on useless things like this. Sadly, this abuse of money just seems to be the norm these days, and it’s up to the people to demand their representatives stop voting to take more of their money away from them.

If you happen to be curious, the Star Trek video can be found here. The Gilligan’s Island video hasn’t been released to the public yet.