Here's the top ten list of wasteful programs according to Coburn's office:

1. $1.5 million in “free” stimulus money for a new wastewater treatment plant results in higher utility costs for residents of Perkins, Oklahoma.
2.  $1 billion for FutureGen in Mattoon, Illinois is the “biggest earmark of all time” for a power plant that may never work.
3. $15 million for “shovel-ready” repairs to little-used bridges in rural Wisconsin are given priority over widely used bridges that are structurally deficient.
4. $800,000 for little-used John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania airport to repave a back-up runway; the ‘Airport for Nobody’ Has Already Received Tens of Millions in Taxpayer dollars.
5.  $3.4 million for a wildlife “eco-passage” in Florida to take animals safely under a busy roadway.
6.  Nevada non-profit gets $2 million weatherization contract after recently being fired for same type of work.
7.  $1.15 million for installation of a new guard rail for the non-existent Optima Lake in Oklahoma.
8. Nearly $10 million to renovate an abandoned train station that hasn’t been used in 30 years.
9. 10,000 dead people get stimulus checks, but the Social Security Administration blames a tough deadline.
10. Town of Union, New York, encouraged to spend a $578,000 grant it did not request for a homelessness problem it claims it does not have.

I applaud Sen. Coburn for his diligence in exposing the immensely wasteful nature of the stimulus bill. His intensely detailed list of unnecessary components in the stimulus bill attests to his dedication for legislative and political accountability. We should have more members of the GOP following in Coburn's commendable footsteps to further reveal the stimulus package for what it is--a poor excuse to increase the powers of the federal government and an excruciatingly superfluous piece of legislation. President Obama, stop playing the role of FDR--The New Deal did not get our country out of the Great Depression, World War II did, and this stimulus bill will not get us out of this recession either.
>> It's about time... Tuesday, June 16, 2009 11:31 AM

I agree with It's about time...we should have more members of the GOP following Coburn's initiative. I can't believe number 5!! $3.4 million for a wildlife “eco-passage” in Florida to take animals safely under a busy roadway....I'd bet that $3.4 million that after the "eco-passage" is built, animals won't even use it.
>> Alexa Tuesday, June 16, 2009 2:28 PM

There's nobody like Dr. Coburn in the Senate. The guy is about as passionate about the issue of wasteful spending as anyone; and the shame is that his work goes largely unnoticed by the entire mainstream establishment media.
>> Mel AZ Tuesday, June 16, 2009 3:20 PM

It really is about time that people start to know the truth about this so-called stimulus. One should always be skeptical when a piece of legislation is pushed so fast. I think that this report is a great example of why Congressional leadership pushed for this bill without giving anyone a chance to fully read the legislation.
>> surprise? not really Tuesday, June 16, 2009 3:46 PM

They passed it without reading it, but last week they had a chance to kill it and save the money. They have now read it, they understand it, but they won't kill it. What does that tell you?
>> TCH Tuesday, June 16, 2009 4:01 PM

Number 5 is by far the best. This will be helpful to homeless people who will have a new place to sleep. Maybe Union, NY should donate its bailout funds to the eco-passage, so they will serve their intended use.
>> Here we go again Tuesday, June 16, 2009 4:14 PM

I guess we can cancel the Murtha airport project and save some money... oh wait! We are run by lawyers and not business people. Well parachute his casket in.
>> Jeff Peterson Friday, February 12, 2010 11:37 AM