[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5746-5747]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TAX FREEDOM DAY

  Mr. KIRK. Mr. President, last week in Chicago, we announced tax 
freedom day--the day that marks the time when Illinois residents have 
paid their Federal and State tax burdens. The Tax Foundation, a 
nonpartisan organization that determines tax freedom day, found that 
this year Americans will pay more on their tax burden than they do on 
food, shelter, and clothing combined. Tax freedom day falls on April 15 
in Illinois and on April 12 nationwide.
  Yet tax freedom day underestimates how heavy the government's burden 
is by only reflecting the size of the bills we actually pay to the 
government, not the spending we are pushing off on future generations 
in the form of higher deficits and debt. If we paid all of our bills to 
the government, the way it spends money, tax freedom day would not come 
until May 23.
  With a government that consumes so much, it is fair to ask: Is the 
government spending as efficiently as possible on programs it is 
funding? Sadly, it is very clear that waste, fraud, and duplication 
still exist widely in the Federal Government.
  To call attention to these issues, I introduced the ``silver fleece 
award'' in homage of Senator William Proxmire's ``golden fleece,'' but 
this one is made of silver, not gold, because we are headed for more 
austere times. In the month of February, this award was voted by 
Facebook users on ``waste book'' and was given to a program awarding $1 
million to provide signs displaying poetry in zoos.

[[Page 5747]]

  I rise today to announce the nominees for the month of March and to 
announce the winner. The second runner up was a grant related to the 
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, or ISTEA, and Safe, 
Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act, or SAFETEA-
LU, which was awarded $150,000 to create special tunnels for 
salamanders to pass under a Vermont road. The first runner up was a 
video game, funded by the Federal Government, called ``WolfQuest,'' 
which was developed using a National Science Foundation grant of 
$609,160 to the Minnesota Zoo.
  However, the March winner of the ``silver fleece award,'' with a 63-
percent vote, is a grant of $460,000 funding a study on why people lie 
on text messages, instant messaging services, social networking Web 
sites, and other modern communication systems. Yes, we spent over 
$460,000 of hard-earned taxpayer dollars to tell you why people lie 
when they are communicating electronically.
  There are new nominees for the April ``silver fleece award.'' This 
month's nominees were put forward by a leader on the issues of fighting 
pork and government waste in the House, Congressman Jeff Flake of 
Arizona. He nominated $450,000 in grants from the State Department for 
art shows in Venice, Italy, $130,276 in National Health Foundation 
funds to sponsor the creation and distribution of a cookbook, and 
$328,835 spent on an Air Force photo op in New York City.
  We invite your votes and your feedback on ``wastebook on Facebook'' 
to decide what next month's ``silver fleece award'' winner will be.
  The sad thing in all of this is that the only current loser is the 
American people.

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