“Have you ever heard the story about the world’s greatest watch thief? He stole things all the time.”
But even that person might be impressed by the tenacious fingers of the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC), a small corner of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that siphoned nearly $75 million of taxpayer money last year for maintenance. Best of all, it's the official government repository of “dad jokes.”
It's fun, but not in a good way.
The organization's website asks questions such as “Why have you never seen an elephant hiding in a tree? Because they're really good at it,” and “Have you seen a new type?” This is where the creepy jokes above come from, along with the jokes that slap you on the back. A broom is sweeping the country?”
To be fair, the National Strategic Dad Joke Sanctuary (sadly not its actual name) is just one of the NRFC's responsibilities. The organization's website offers a list of fun activities for fathers and children to do together, as well as more serious content such as public service announcements about the importance of being a good father and access to mental health resources.
But NRFC is an example of how even well-intentioned government programs can become bloated and wasteful. As part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, it was created as a one-stop shop for the various fatherhood incentive grant programs administered by various federal agencies. The Obama administration revamped the NRFC in 2010, turning it into a “multifaceted initiative to encourage fathers to become better parents” with a promise to “catalyze new conversations about fathers in the community.”
What has NRFC achieved? It's hard to say, and I think it's by design. A 2018 HHS study found that few “rigorous evaluations” have tested the effectiveness of federally funded fatherhood programs. The study noted that although improving these outcomes is “the primary rationale for father involvement programs,” “none of the evaluations we analyzed” focused on whether the programs provided better outcomes for children.
There's nothing inherently wrong with encouraging good fathering, but good intentions don't always translate into effective spending. “The federal government is comically ineffective at promoting behavior change through social programs,” says Romina Boccia, who highlights her taxpayer-funded dad. She has jokes in her Substack newsletter. debt dispatchEarly this year.
Even if you're a fan of dad jokes or a practitioner of the arts, this may seem like an incredibly stupid way to spend your tax dollars. This is especially true at a time when the federal government is running trillions of dollars in annual deficits and a national debt exceeding $34.5 trillion. This is no laughing matter.
When it comes to the importance of spending cuts, we can only hope that Congress learns a lesson from one of the jokes in the NRFC database: “The man who stays up all night wondering where the sun has gone.”
Have you ever heard of that? She finally dawned on him.