Bureaucracy in Action- Wastebook

While browsing around the internet looking for inspiration for this blog post, I stumbled across this article in 2011 that introduced me to the waste book. Orginally created by retired Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), this book is published every year by a senator holding a seat in Congress highlighting the 100 federal government projects that are the most "outrageous ways government wastes your money." My next logical step was to find 2015's edition.  It turns out that the project was continued by Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and the most up-to-date edition even spoofs one of the most popular movies of last year.  The 2015 version came out last December calling itself Wastebook-The Farce Awakens. In the introduction, Flake writes that "Proving once again that no matter how mired in gridlock Washington appears, there is always one area of agreement-spending more. Washington equates caring with the amount of dollars spent" (Wastebook, 6).

This is where Flake connects to Niskanen's traditional model of governmental bureaucracy.  Flake emphasizes the first and third reasons for why governments produce inefficient output.  In these two sentences, he explains that it is difficult to gauge efficiency when the only data is found in measuring the inputs or "spending more".  Similarly, a larger budget typically leads to a bigger bureau to manage, more power, and higher wages for the Senior Bureaucrat in change of the department.  Similarly, "Spending more" is often equated with caring more for the American people, or so it seems.  Furthermore, the waste book reflects Niskanen by showing the desire for bureaus to produce above the sponsor's optimal level where MPB=MPC, pushing out farther along the marginal public cost curve. In this way, there are incentives to grow as large as possible and to approve as many projects as possible.  While humorous to read the ridiculous proposals approved by a myriad of government departments, the Wastebook becomes a strong example for the traditional approach to bureaucracy focusing on the Senior bureaucrat and highlighting the inefficiencies found in the federal government.

If you have time, leaf through the projects approved by the federal government documented in the 286 pages. I found them very funny in a dark, "every fiber of my being thinks this is wrong" sort of way.