NIH Spends Millions on Hopped-Up Honeybees and Sexy Goldfish, Then Asks for Zika Funding

[Geee]

Heritage Foundation:

What do honey bees on cocaine, drunken songbirds, and sexy goldfish have in common? Each was the subject of extensive, taxpayer-funded research and each features prominently in Sen. Jeff Flake’s most recent expose on government waste.

 

The Arizona Republican’s oversight report—”Twenty Questions: Government Studies That Will Leave You Scratching Your Head”—highlights $35 million worth of federally funded research projects of dubious merit.

 

It’s part of an effort to increase oversight and efficiency in government research.

 

“When federal agencies don’t spend our limited research dollars wisely,” Flake said, “they’re not just wasting money, they’re missing opportunities, and we can’t afford either.”

[Geee]

Feds pay researcher to have bee sting his penis

 

Taxpayers paid for one scientist to have a bee sting his penis, and paid other researchers to figure out that cheerleaders look more attractive in a group than individually, according to a painful new survey of wasteful spending being released Tuesday by Sen. Jeff Flake.

 

At a time of tight budgets and demands for new spending, including money to fight Zika, to repair water pipes in Flint, Michigan, and to combat the growing opioid epidemic, Mr. Flake said the existence of ridiculous research projects funded by taxpayers shows there’s plenty of room to cut to pay for those needs.

 

Perhaps the most outrageous item Mr. Flake identified was a study that concluded Democratic women in Congress were less feminine than Republican women. That bit of research, which even went so far as to identify the lawmakers thought to score low on the femininity test, was part of a $50,000 National Science Foundation grant to the University of California-Los Angeles.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/10/feds-pay-researcher-have-bee-sting-his-penis/