RealClearInvestigations Articles

The quintessential image of up-and-coming musicians toughing it out in a squalid tour bus was far from reality in 2013, when the federal government spent $284,300 helping record label executives travel overseas to sell music — $412,249 in today’s dollars. The American Association of Independent Music received the money from the Department of Commerce’s Market Development Cooperator Program to promote indie rock in China, France, Brazil and Canada. That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For...

Medicare spent an estimated $380 million acquiring human organs that were either transplanted into patients without Medicare or never transplanted at all, according to a new Department of Health and Human Services inspector general audit. Key facts: Medicare reimburses hospitals for removing kidneys, hearts, lungs and other organs from donors after they die. Federal law says Medicare should only bear those costs when the organ is used in a Medicare-covered transplant. But decades-old Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services guidance tells hospitals to assume that any organ they send to a...

The U.S. Army gave $533 million to General Dynamics to build an artillery factory in Texas that has yet to produce a single usable shell, according to an investigation by ProPublica. Key facts: The Army wanted to rapidly increase production of 155mm artillery shells after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. General Dynamics was the only U.S. producer of the shell bodies at the time. Instead of using its own proven manufacturing process, General Dynamics used new “flow-forming” machinery from Turkish subcontractor Repkon. The equipment had never produced the newer model of shell the...

Retiree Janet Stechly examines her often confounding gas bill in her Washington, PA, home. RCI WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania—Janet Stechly, a retired schoolteacher, and her husband, a retired coal miner, pore over every monthly expense. One of the most confounding is the monthly natural gas bill for their small townhouse in southwestern Pennsylvania. Their March bill from Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania totaled $95.17, but only $13.99 of that was for the gas itself. The other $81.18 covered delivery ($40.68) and a series of hard-to-decipher items including a “customer charge”...

The Department of Homeland Security claimed to have saved $10.5 billion through cost-cutting measures led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. A new audit by the Government Accountability Office argues that less than 1% of that amount was actually saved. Key facts: Most of DHS’ reported savings came from cutting 30 information technology contracts that could have cost up to $10 billion over the next 10 years.  However, DHS still needs IT to function. Because the contracts were cut, the General Services Administration had to increase its spending on IT and share...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the WeekSeptember 6 to September 12   RCI Podcasts & Videos On this week’s RCI Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discussed several articles in an extended news round-up. They included recent investigations into the Iran war, new tech that's pushing fake news, and the 25th anniversary of 9/11. You can also listen to it on Spotify and Apple by searching for “RealClearInvestigations.” Featured Investigation: Devolution Revolution: Americans Returning Power to the People A cluster of small, mostly...

The Securities and Exchange Commission paid $10.7 million to store its electronic data at a Maryland facility that was allegedly certified by a company that does not exist. AiNET Corp. and its former CEO Deepak Jain recently agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly defrauding the government. The settlement does not contain an admission of guilt. Key facts: When the SEC began looking for a new data center in 2012, it required applicants to have a Tier III certification. That means the data center is fully operational even when...

The U.S. Army spent $297 million in 2013, or $425 million in today’s money, developing a surveillance blimp as long as a football field that was supposed to hover over Afghanistan for three weeks at a time. It flew once — for 90 minutes over New Jersey — before the Army canceled the program and sold the blimp for just $301,000 to the company that built it.  That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer...

The last remaining 15 terrorist detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison are considered the “worst of the worst,” “high-value detainees,” and “forever prisoners,” but Gitmo parole records reveal that at least three of the violent jihadists have been recommended for release recently despite high recidivism rates. Mjuayn al-din Jamal al-Din Abd al-Sattar is a “committed member of al-Qaeda” who fought with Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora. Wikipedia One is Mjuayn al-din Jamal al-Din Abd al-Sattar, a “committed member...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has not been checking the Treasury’s Do Not Pay List of groups that should not receive federal money. In the first six months of fiscal year 2026, the agency gave $2 billion in rental assistance to entities that were not registered, according to a new audit report. This is after not having any access to the list. In 2024, HUD, lacking access to the Treasury’s Do Not Pay List, gave $5.2 billion in rental assistance to entities that did not properly register for it. Key facts: HUD sends roughly $15 billion in subsidies every year to...

Sometimes a boundary is just a line in the road. But sometimes it’s a gate from one world to another.  Driving due south from downtown Los Angeles through what was once the thriving center of Black L.A. now takes travelers through miles of dystopia that look like Mumbai on a bad day: potholed roads, vacant buildings, and mostly Latino young people – and older African Americans – hanging out with seemingly no particular place to go. Then, about 18 miles in, you enter Paramount, a predominantly Latino city of over 50,000 residents which is still part of Los Angeles County...

Every parent wants a daycare that provides the highest level of supervision for their children, but looking after kids who haven’t even been born yet might be taking things a bit too far. One daycare in Oklahoma qualified for a state grant by claiming to enroll children that birth records later showed were still in the womb. Other daycares double-counted their children or claimed to enroll more children than they were licensed to supervise, State Auditor Cindy Byrd announced in an Aug. 24 press conference. Key facts: Oklahoma’s Childcare Desert Grant program uses federal money to...

Congress members are set to make a $560 million donation to the universities they once attended as students, using taxpayer funds.  Twenty-five senators and 37 House members requested earmarks for their alma maters in the 2027 federal budget, Open the Books found in a review of congressional disclosures. They have not yet been signed into law but will likely be included in the budget Congress must send to President Trump by Sept. 30. An additional 15 Congress members requested $81.8 million for universities where they once worked, and three more members requested $4.8 million for...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the WeekAugust 30 to September 5   RCI Podcasts & Videos On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with sports columnist Matt Calkins, who resigned from the Seattle Times after the newspaper killed his column that argued it is not hateful to oppose biological men playing women’s sports. On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller speaks with James Varney about his recent RCI article which looks at the federal government's unsuccessful...

Contractors working for the State of Illinois took a 470,000-hour paid lunch break on taxpayers’ dime. A company hired during the Covid-19 pandemic to fill staffing shortages at hospitals and long-term care facilities spent more than a third of its time on “standdown,” a contract provision that paid them to be on-site and available in case they were needed. The contractor, Favorite Healthcare Staffing, was supposed to notify the state any time its employees were on standdown for more than 24 hours. There was no evidence those notifications occurred, and the state only...

In 1996, a task force of independent healthcare experts recommended that doctors stop giving urine tests to people who did not show symptoms of a urinary tract infection. The test has “no benefit,” since even a positive result for elevated bacteria levels does not mean the patient is unhealthy, research shows. The recommendation, like many others, was essentially ignored. Today the government spends about $1 billion annually for almost 15% of seniors on Medicare to get the test. There are several dozen and possibly hundreds of such “low-value care” treatments...

The Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service charged taxpayers and other federal agencies $50 million in 2013 for electronic copies of government-funded research and reports.There is another well-known service that provides electronic copies of research: Google. Almost 75% of the reports taxpayers spent money on were already available for free on public search engines.That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer...

Oklahoma’s largest school district allegedly paid $2.6 million to a company owned by one of its executives — for architectural work that was never performed, according to a state audit released on Aug. 18.Key facts: Chris Hudgins, executive director of bond & energy management at Tulsa Public Schools, directly oversaw the district’s construction projects. He allegedly awarded contracts to the construction firm Allied Engineering Group at inflated costs, the audit found.Allied then hired M&G Consulting Services — a company Hudgins has owned since 1999 — to...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development spent $460 billion funding its 18 largest affordable housing and homelessness programs over a decade, but a new Open the Books review found the spending didn’t help reduce housing prices. Key facts: For each of the 50 states, Open the Books measured the “affordability gap” — how much the price of an average home grew compared to how much income grew. Idaho had the worst gap. Income grew 68% from 2015 to 2024, but the price of a house grew 151%. Florida, Nevada and Tennessee also had some of the worst gaps. Those are all...