What do robotic squirrels, menus for Martian meals and a musical about climate change have in common? They've all been made possible with taxpayer assistance, according to the latest survey of government waste put out by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Known simply as the Waste Book, the report is a watchlist of eye-opening expenditures, which Coburn blames on a "let them eat caviar" attitude in Washington -- at a time when "23 million of our fellow Americans do not have good jobs," Coburn notes.

On average, each mile of border fence costs US taxpayers about $4 million to build and will cost another $6.5 billion over the next 20 years to repair and maintain.

Are we getting our money's worth? Is the border fence an effective deterrent? To find out, I asked two young women—both only about 5'5"—to see if they could climb the wall.

Politicians in Washington hardly let a few minutes go by without mentioning how broke the government is. So, it's a little surprising that they've created a stash of more than $1 billion that almost no one wants.

Unused dollar coins have been quietly piling up in Federal Reserve vaults in breathtaking numbers, thanks to a government program that has required their production since 2007.

And even though the neglected mountain of money recently grew past the $1 billion mark, the U.S. Mint will keep making more and more of the coins under a congressional mandate.

On September 10, 2001 Donald Rumsfeld mentioned that thanks to "military bureaucracy" that trillions (with a T) could not be accounted for, saying it was a matter of "life and dead." Then, 24 hrs. later world history was changed forever, and most have seemingly forgotten about this financial disaster.

The city will change the lettering on every single street sign - at an estimated cost of about $27.5 million - because the feds don't like the font.