From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Tim Desher, and this is Heritage Explains.

We all know the government loves to spend our money.

Remember this scene from the hit movie Independence Day when President Whitmore first sees Area 51?

I don't understand. Where does all this come from? How do you get funding for something like this?

You don't actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat, do you?

While the exchange is cheeky and fun, this highlights a very real problem. The federal government spends, we pay taxes, and seldom see a benefit. In fact, here's a list of things the federal

government has spent money on in recent history. 2.5 million for a lame Super Bowl commercial

for the census. How about a neon light museum in Las Vegas?

Then there's the study of a genital washing program for South African men.

Gross.

I personally like the story when the federal government paid millions of dollars to watch

video gamers play World

of Warcraft.

And of course, for all you deadheads out there, the federal government spent $615,000

on digitizing the Grateful Dead catalog and memorabilia.

Man, doesn't our government rock?

With the current budget of $4.5 trillion, there's a lot of room for waste, and it takes a lot of work to figure out how to spend all that money.

But waste isn't the only problem.

What is the impact on those receiving money from the federal government?

A lot of that money is distributed to the states in what we call grants in aid, which is

essentially money coming from Washington and going to a specific project in a state like a new

bridge or a mass transit system.

...