Senator William Proxmire and the "Golden Fleece Award"

Each year from 1975 to 1987, Senator William Proxmire (D-WI) issued a "Golden Fleece" Award "to the biggest, most ridiculous or most ironic example of (U.S.) government spending or waste". 

Although Senator William Proxmire (1915-2005) retired in 1987, his focus on specific examples of what he considered unnecessary spending could bring the public into the debates in a meaningful way because the debates over spending could be about specific spending items. 

President Reagan also sought to specify the debate when he initiated a campaign for a "Line Item Veto". President Clinton finally got a line item veto law passed in 1996 and became the first U.S. President to use it. President Obama has renewed the line item veto campaign by requesting an "updated' or enhanced line item veto. 

I believe that when the debates are about vague references to "wasteful" and "inappropriate" spending by governments or catchall groupings, like "entitlements", then the debates can only coalesce around "Conservative", "Progressive", "Liberal", "Republican", "Democrat", etc. 

The first Golden Fleece Award, in 1975, was to President Ford's administration, to the National Science Foundation, for spending $84,000 (est. $240,000 in 2007 dollars) to study why people fall in love. 

Senator Proxmire issued the Golden Fleece Award almost monthly and, importantly, issued to both Republicans and Democrats. 

For example, in September 1979, the Senator issued an award to the National Science Foundation for spending $39,600 (est. $45,000 in 2007 dollars) to study "Himalayan mountaineering, social change, and the evolution of the (Buddhist) religion among the Sherpa of Nepal".

In his final year in the Senate, Proxmire issued a Golden Fleece Award to President Reagan's administration, to the Air Force, for spending $59,000 (est. $100,000 in 2007 dollars) over 6 years on playing cards given as souvenirs on Air Force Two (then Vice-President George Herbert Walker Bush's airplane). 

I do not agree with all of Senator Proxmire's Golden Fleece Award selections. (In fact, several have born out to be quite valuable over the past 40 years.) But I agree with the fact of identifying specific line items. 

In it's time, the Golden Fleece Award was very well publicized and popular. So, I believe, that reviving a debate about the specifics rather than the catchall would be well-received now.

Of course, all members of House and Senate should get involved and, perhaps, pick their own Golden Fleece items. And, we also should post online, sufficiently before budget votes, in clearly understood colloquial terms, all of the spending items. Real transparency: Isn't that democracy?

By Steven J. Reichenstein