Lawmaker wants to crack down on Martian-themed parties, zombie apocalypse prep
Your taxes have paid for NASA Martian parties and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) zombie mascots.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) proposed the Stop Wasteful Advertising by the Government (SWAG) Act in the attempt to do something about the "gimmicky advertising techniques."
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Sen. Ernst used the example of NASA spending $30,000 on Martian-themed parties, including a Martian mascot.
A woman painted as an alien for Halloween
She also mentioned the CDC shelling out $10,000 on a zombie apocalypse survival guide. Ernst said the Department of Energy also spent $5,000 on their zombie friend called the “Green Reaper.”
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“The federal government has spent over $1.4 billion to develop advertising techniques, public relations – a quarter of a million of that has gone to these mascots and these different agencies,” Ernst told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney. “And we'd like to stop that."
"We really want our federal tax dollars going to things that really matter for our constituents.”
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Cutting down on wasteful government spending has been tried before but hasn't always worked. Ernst said, unfortunately, what many taxpayers may think of as “common sense” can often get “lost in the shuffle” with everything else happening on Capitol Hill.
FILE PHOTO: The United States Capitol is seen at night on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
“We really need to focus on areas where we can save our dollars."
Ernst said the $1.4 billion spent on these advertising techniques is "over twice what the federal government gives for breast cancer research.”
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“It's beyond reason why we can't pass a simple bill like this to actually use those tax dollars for better purposes, what the federal government should be doing, or simply save those dollars for the taxpayers,” she said.