Congress can't even debate a bill without wasting money. In the first two months of this year, it spent at least $27,500 "on printing charts, props, and posters, sticking them on easels (or making staff hold them up) and giving speeches about them," according to FloorCharts, which has been archiving congressional charts and posters since 2012.
That figure was obtained by estimating the average cost of a chart at $50 and totaling the number of charts used by the House and Senate (550) over the two-month period. This number doesn't include all committee charts, but the analysis found that Republicans "used about 20 more charts than Democrats." FloorCharts notes that "this is napkin math, because there is no line item in the office budgets for 'printed charts, props, and posters.'"
That total is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the national debt, but any wasteful government spending should be eliminated. And when you look at the posters the legislators came up with, you'll see that this spending could be very wasteful indeed. Here are four of the most ridiculous posters—and one that we have to admit is pretty good.
