Government makes us pay for a lot of stuff we don’t want. Cowboy poetry and robot squirrels and gherkin specifications and… look, there’s plenty of stupid out there.

Imagine, for a moment, a game show set. Wink Martindale is the host, because you need a pro to keep this thing on the rails. Contestants are picked at random from the studio audience to answer questions about the IRS, prepared by auditors and CPAs. Winners are awarded a tax rebate. Losers get the last 10 years of their income tax returns audited.

In the face of $9 billion in unpaid bills, the Illinois legislature has found time in 2012 for an amazing amount of peripheral legislation to take effect in 2013.For instance, after Jan. 1, 2013, it will be illegal in Illinois to possess, sell, trade, or distribute a shark fin. 

$150 million for Alaskan fisheries, $2 million to the Smithsonian to repair roofs and $8 million to Homeland Security and the Justice Department to buy cars. And that's just the start. No, this is not Stimulus Part 2, this is the Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill, rightfully dubbed the "Sandy Scam." As Matt Kibbe pointed out earlier, the Sandy Scam Bill whose total price tag is $60.4 billion, also contains:

Earlier this month, a hybrid battery plant in Holland Michigan began furloughing workers.  Yes, even before the plant had produced a single battery since ground was broken in 2010. The plant received $150M in taxpayer money to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles but, due to lack of demand, it doesn’t look like we are getting our money’s worth.