Currently, there are a number of politicians in both parties that bear Proxmire's mantle, including Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. The Senator had to write a law in order to stop workers' compensation benefits to people who were in prison because they were convicted of workers' comp fraud. That's a start, a mighty slow one but a start. Watchdog groups, such as Citizens Against Government Waste and the Heritage Foundation, continually uncover new examples of waste, mismanagement and outright criminal activity when it comes to government spending taxpayers' dollars. Student loan repayment schedules are ignored, with more than 40 percent in default.
Loans also go to help students attend colleges specializing in massage, hypnosis and hair removal.
Department of Housing and Urban Development funds to improve public housing in New Orleans were used to provide 16 cars to managers, while work crews who service nine projects had to share one pick-up. Agency for International Development money earmarked to help the Egyptian people ended up helping Egyptian bureaucrats pay for parties, newspaper obituaries, flowers, tips, radios and clothes. Cure is Citizen Oversight Examples of government's fiscal mismanagement, waste, fraud and abuse come daily in every news report. We need more elected officials willing to follow in Proxmire's shoes, people willing to seek out and eliminate wasteful spending. We need more analysts and reporters who can ferret out questionable programs and extravagant spending from microscopic lines of budget accounts.