ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel brought up Sen. Jeff Flake's (R., Ariz.) "Wastebook" outlining billions of wasted dollars in government spending during his monologue Wednesday, and a story about EPA shower monitors reported by the Free Beacon came up in the segment.
"The titles in the report are unusual," Kimmel said. "One of them is 'Hotel Shower Monitor.' That one was an EPA study to find out how much time hotel guests spend in the shower."
Kimmel went on to play a game with his audience members where they had to guess whether the name he said was an example of government waste or an indie band. It turned out "Sheep in Microgravity" and "Life-Size Pacman" were not music groups but indeed examples of more frivolous spending.
Flake's publication continues an annual tradition started by retired Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), and it sounded like Kimmel's monologue drew almost exclusively from Free Beacon reporter Elizabeth Harrington's story on it.
Harrington wrote:
Sen. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) released his first chronicle of government waste on Tuesday, exposing billions in egregious and unnecessary federal spending on everything from wine classes for minors to fight clubs for shrimp.
Wastebook: The Farce Awakens, starring "monkeys on treadmills, parties for hipsters, and sheep in microgravity," continues the tradition of retired Sen. Tom Coburn. The cover for the Star Wars themed report portrays Flake as the Luke Skywalker to Coburn’s Obi Wan.
"A lot of them do sound crazy," Kimmel said. "The government this year funded a study of monkeys on treadmills, wine classes for minors, a shrimp fight club in which 68 Panamanian mantis shrimp were pitted against each other to see who would emerge victorious, which to me sounds kind of awesome. Sounds like a TV show I'd watch."
Flake's report featured numerous examples of waste uncovered by the Free Beacon:
The report features several examples of frivolous government spending first uncovered by the Washington Free Beacon, including $5 million to throw "commune" dance parties for hipsters to encourage them to quit smoking.
Pamela Ling, a professor at UCSF School of Medicine and former contestant on MTV’s "The Real World," is running the project, which pays hipsters $5 a week and sells anti-neocon propaganda.
Flake found the anti-smoking campaign is not working as planned.
"One of those who joined the ‘Commune quit group’ is smoking again and admits, ‘I did it for the money,’" the report said.
Other Free Beacon stories highlighted in the report included $17,500 for college students to wear fat suits for "weight sensitivity training"; $200,113 to develop a fat detector that guesses a person’s body mass index by looking at their face; and $15,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to create a device that monitors how long hotel guests spend in the shower.