We spend millions on bubble balls and drunk birds

Tax dollars to make a film about Walt Disney? How about art made with garbage? Or a study on drunk zebra finch birds?

These are all documented – and pricey – examples of Your Tax Dollars at Work. Sharyl Attkisson with Full Measure interviewed U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who launched an investigation in wasteful government spending habits.

"It makes you laugh, and it makes you cry," McCain observed.

Some examples:

The National Guard is $100 million in debt, and yet spent $14,000 on "bubble balls." "It was some harebrained idea somebody had," said McCain.

'Bubble balls' purchased by National Guard

$3.5 million spent on wine tasting. "Shouldn't the wineries do that themselves, rather than have the government do that?" asked McCain. "This was part of their program to promote wine."
$262 million in mismanaged FEMA grants. "After Hurricane Katrina, billions of dollars have been spent. All Americans have been in favor of that reconstruction of New Orleans and the areas surrounding it. Unfortunately a lot of that money was wasted."
$413 million wasted on building a duplicative State Department training center facility. "They decided that they needed another training center, when the fact is no one else believed they needed it, including the inspector general who said 'This is totally unnecessary.'"

"You know, we laugh about the birds getting drunk," observed McCain, "but when you see something like that [training center facility], there's no humor there. It's anger. The problem is, we don't hold people accountable."

Attkisson noted that as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator McCain helped amend the 2016 national defense budget to limit the Pentagon's use of millions of tax dollars for professional sports advertising until it reviews current contracts to see if it's worth it.

It is unclear what Senator McCain thinks can be done with these kinds of wasteful projects.