The Hill News

Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-Okla.) accused the government of $11.5 billion in waste this past year in his annual "Wastebook" report released Monday.

Coburn, a longtime fiscal hawk, detailed 100 spending projects from the past year that he said constituted government waste that contributed to record deficits in the past year.

"During these difficult times when families are struggling to make ends meet, the federal government can best assist hard working Americans by keeping their taxes low and not burdening them with higher debt," Coburn wrote in the introduction to the report. "Congress can do so by not spending money we do not have on things we do not need, like the over $11.5 billion of examples provided i! n this report."

The Oklahoma conservative's report identifies a number of spending projects, some of which were funded by earmarks sought by lawmakers for home state and district projects. Earmarks have emerged as a strong political issue for conservatives in recent months. Conservatives pushed the Republican establishment in the House and Senate to adopt bans on earmarking, and political pressure against earmarks within an omnibus spending bill last week helped fell the legislation.

Coburn's report also comes at a point in time when deficit reduction has become an increasingly salient political issue. President Obama's fiscal commission recommended spending cuts and tax reforms as a pathway to addressing long-term U.S. debt, and Congress appears eager to slash spending with a GOP-held House next year.

In reality, cutting earmarks wouldn't go very far toward reducing the hundreds of billions in deficit spending wracked up by Congress in th! e past year alone. Entitlement spending is seen as a larger co! ntributo r to rising deficits, and the tax cuts deal President Obama will sign into law this week is expected to heap on additional hundreds of billions to the deficit.

"Well-intentioned people across the political spectrum will argue about the best way to get us back on track," Coburn said. "But we can all agree that cutting wasteful and low- priority spending from the budget is not only sensible, but essential."

Projects identified by Coburn include $1.8 million in spending this past year to gather and display historic Las Vegas casino signs, and $165,000 to the University of California at Santa Cruz to help its library digitize its collection of Grateful Dead materials.