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Taxpayers from all political persuasions agree on the common sense principle that, once a wasteful government program is killed, it should stay dead.  Unfortunately, like zombies in an old horror movie, 13 wasteful spending programs, subsidies and tax breaks that have been killed in recent years have risen from the dead. This taxpayers’ nightmare wastes billions of hard-earned dollars and further undermines Americans’ trust in their government and in both political parties. While average taxpayers are told they must share in mutual sacrifice, powerful special interests pull their programs out of the grave.

The zombie programs in this report might be laughable—except that the joke is on taxpayers who are footing the bill. If the 13 “killed” programs and tax breaks described in this report had never been revived, Taxpayers for Common $ense estimates that taxpayers could have saved over $46 billion since 1980. If the 13 programs and tax breaks in this report were ended today, we estimate that taxpayers could save over $58 billion more in the next five years.

Because it best exemplifies the problem of “killed” programs returning from the dead, the B-2 Bomber program is the Zombie of the Year. After a major battle, Congress enacted laws in 1992 and 1993 capping the B-2 bomber program at 20 planes.  But this fall Congress made a down payment on two more bombers as the start of a long-term plan to build a 20 additional B-2s.

Taxpayers are losing trust in the whole political process. Today the politicians in Washington, D.C. are waging what they call the mother of all budget battles, complete with ”train wrecks” and threats of defaulting on the national debt. Congress enacts a law saying a program is dead. Headlines announce its obituary. But the moment the taxpayer looks away, special interests and their politician friends reincarnate the budget buster. Citizens can’t trust their government to stick to a decision that the majority has made fair and square.