Tom Coburn ‘Wastebook’: $125K 3D Pizza
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1. $125,000 3-D pizza: NASA gave a $124,955 grant to Arjun Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a small company hoping to build a 3-D pizza printer as part of space-exploration mission supplies. However, NASA scientists say the research will take time, and it could be years before the technology becomes feasible.
2. $914,000 to research Team Edward: The Popular Romance Project has received $914,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities since 2010, Coburn says. The project is expanding its website, which provides research into the origins of romance and its depiction in popular culture, including novels, Internet fan fiction and advice books. Coburn notes that the website currently provides analysis into the pop hit “Call Me Maybe” and the debate over fictional characters from “Twilight,” the young-adult series.
3. $17.5 million in brothel tax exemptions: Coburn says that through the tax code, $17.5 million has gone to brothels in Nevada that have claimed tax exemptions for everything from breast implants to “free passes” that were deemed part of promotional costs and eligible for deductions by the IRS.
4. $50 million “Google searches”: Coburn attributes $50 million to National Technical Information Services, an agency that charges for reports that often can be found for free through a Google search. Coburn calls NTIS, which is part of the Department of Commerce, antiquated, as it was created at a time when information wasn’t as readily available. He noted that about 74 percent of its reports had information available in public sources. Additionally, a CD-ROM for which the agency charges $79 contains information that is also available for free on the Internet.
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