Republican report points up stimulus waste

WASHINGTON, June 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. economic stimulus package is rife with waste and riddled with ineptitude, a report by a Republican senator indicates.

The report, to be released Tuesday by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, cites as examples a $3.4 million turtle crossing in Florida and a snafu in which thousands of Social Security checks were sent to people who had died, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"Will these projects make real improvements in the lives of taxpayers and communities or are they simply pet projects of politicians and lobbyists that never got off the ground because they are a low priority?" the report, "A Second Opinion on the Stimulus," said.

Coburn's staff spent a month interviewing federal officials, examining data and compiling news clippings in its examination of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Times said.

President Barack Obama administration officials fired back, saying Coburn's research was flawed and noting several projects have been stopped, even though they were listed in Coburn's report.

In a prepared statement, Obama aide Ed DeSeve said, "With 20,000 projects approved, there are bound to be some mistakes -- when we find them, we have been transparent about it, and worked on a bipartisan basis to shut them down immediately."

Coburn's report "is filled with inaccuracies, including criticisms of projects that have already been stopped, projects that never were approved, and some projects that are working quite well," DeSeve said.