Oklahoma Senator Lists 'Federal Fumbles' In Wasteful Spending Report

Picking up where former Senator Tom Coburn left off, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford wants to identify federal government waste.

Lankford debuted what he calls his "Federal Fumbles" list, government spending that he considers wasteful and inefficient.

Lankford's initial effort focuses on 100 federal programs his staff thinks is wasting your tax dollars.

11/30/2015 Related Story: Senator James Lankford To Release 'Waste Book'

“Waste of taxpayer dollars, programs that are ripe with fraud, duplication and inefficiency, over-regulation that raises the cost of goods and services for the consumer and government processes that deceive taxpayers and add to those family's debt responsibilities,” he said.

The senator said two top sources of fraud involve the federal earned income tax credit, and the use of dead people's social security numbers to file tax returns and obtain other government services. It's why he said the government needs what he calls a death master list to keep track of them.

“People want their government to be efficient, that's a reasonable thing to do, and so this is not a matter of cutting, this is identifying things that are not federal priorities, or funding things that should be done better by a state or things we do wastefully,” he said.

Lankford said each year he'll include programs he thinks the federal government is doing well, "touchdowns," and he'll include those in his "fumbles" report.

You can read this year's version here.