By Adam Bitely — Obama is pained by the waste of over $800,000 by the General Services Administration (GSA). The “waste” has resulted in the head of the GSA, Martha Johnson, losing her job along with some other bureaucrats involved in the matter.
Oddly though, Obama has failed to shown any concern for trillions of dollars in debt that the has helped add to the nation’s deficit.
The leadership collapse came hours before GSA Inspector General Brian D. Miller released a scathing report on the $823,000 training conference, held for 300 West Coast employees at the M Resort and Casino, an opulent hotel in Henderson, Nev., just south of Las Vegas. From $130,000 in travel expenses for six scouting trips to a $2,000 party in Peck’s loft suite, event planners violated federal limits on conference spending.
The episode is an embarrassment for the Obama administration at a time when the role and size of government have taken center stage in the presidential campaign. How much government should spend, and on what, will be at the heart of the election-year battles between Democrats and Republicans.
The event featured a clown, comedian and a psychic, all paid for by the U.S. taxpayer!
As WTOP reported:
The resignations were announced the same day the agency’s Office of the Inspector General released an extended study of the October 2011 conference at a luxury hotel near Las Vegas, which cost $835,000. Roughly 300 employees attended.
Expenses included $147,000 in airfare and lodging for six planning trips for the organizers.
“The OIG found that many of the expenditures on this conferences were excessive and wasteful,” the report states. “In many instances GSA followed neither federal procurement laws nor its own policy on conference spending.”
As one GSA employee snarked on Facebook, “When I worked for GSA Martha Johnson was on a war path to ‘eliminate the carbon footprint’ of GSA. They outlawed space heaters and office refrigerators. Now we find out at the same time as she was making every GSA employee’s life hell she was spending thousands to treat herself and her top deputies to Vegas vacations.”
But what is most striking is Obama’s repulsion. While Johnson did waste taxpayer money, it is considerably less than $1+ trillion the amount that Obama proposed in his budget that the nation would take on in debt this year alone! From WTOP:
“When the White House was informed of the inspector general’s findings, we acted quickly to determine who was responsible for such a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars,” Lew says in a statement. “The President was informed before his trip to South Korea, and he was outraged by the excessive spending, questionable dealings with contractors and disregard for taxpayer dollars.”
“He called for all those responsible to be held fully accountable given that these actions were irresponsible and entirely inconsistent with the expectations that he has set as President,” says Lew
Obama and the rest of his administration’s sudden concern about taxpayer money being wasted is interesting, but not truly serious. It belies the history of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars being squandered away on an annual basis.
Martha Johnson and the rest of those fired at the GSA are just the tip of the iceberg in this ridiculous saga of government profligacy.
While Johnson did waste taxpayer money, it is considerably less than $1+ trillion the amount that Obama proposed in his budget that the nation would take on in debt this year alone!
If Obama were truly angry about this, he would do well to investigate all departments and agencies (and even Michelle Obama’s vacations that seem to never end) and deal summarily with any and every offense of largesse — including himself.
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @AdamBitely.
