Federally Funded Dad Jokes
“Did you hear the one about the world’s greatest watch thief? He stole all the time.”
But even that guy might be impressed by the sticky fingers of the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC), a tiny corner of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that managed to pilfer nearly $75 million in taxpayer money last year to maintain, among other things, an official government repository of “dad jokes.”
It’s funny—but not in a good way.
The agency’s website is the source of the cringey joke above, along with other forehead-slappers such as “Why don’t you ever see elephants hiding in trees? Because they are really good at it,” and “Have you seen the new type of broom? It’s sweeping the nation.”
In fairness, the National Strategic Dad Joke Reserve (not the real name, sadly) is just one of the NRFC’s responsibilities. The agency’s website offers a list of fun activities for fathers and kids to do together, along with more serious stuff such as public service announcements about the importance of being a good dad and access to mental health resources.
But the NRFC mostly stands as an example of how even well-intentioned government programs can become bloated and wasteful. It was created as part of the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act as a one-stop shop for various fatherhood-promoting grant programs administered by a variety of federal agencies. The Obama administra
Article from Reason.com
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