“Wasteful and Extravagant”: Bureaucrats live the high life
September 22nd, 2011
$7.32 per bite
We’re in the midst of an economic crisis right? Congress is deadlocked in a white knuckled knock-down-drag-out battle for the future of America’s financial solvency… right? We’re in a period of unsustainable national deficit. A time when we’ve all got to tighten our belts, cut spending and raise taxes, especially on the “super rich.” So… why is the US “Justice” Department spending sixteen dollars each on muffins, eight dollars each on cups of coffee and seven dollars per serving on Beef Wellington appetizers. That’s per serving. Not per plate. We’re talking about $7.32 for a mini puff pastry on the end of the toothpick.
Why are they even eating Beef Wellington anyway? I’d never even heard of it, so I looked it up just in case you hadn’t either. It’s a medium rare slab of beef tenderloin (one of the most expensive cuts) topped with mushrooms and fois gras. Fois gras? It’s a pâté made from the liver of a goose that’s been force fed until it’s liver is six to ten times its ordinary size. It was recently banned in Chicago because producing it was considered animal cruelty, and it’s only really eaten by the “super rich” anyway. Are you seeing the problem? I guess it’s ok for the cronies but too good for us livestock.
A recent audit released by the department’s Office of the Inspector General said $4.4 million was spent on 10 law enforcement conferences between October 2007 and September 2009. The report called it, “indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending,” this while the economic crisis was in full swing. Only the government would spend $76-per-person for lunch at a conference while simultaneously whining about austerity measures. Of course officials from the US “Justice” Department insisted that they were actually saving the tax payer money by serving muffins and other snacks instead of full meals.
When money gets tight, and there’s a lot of fiscal uncertainty any normal person would trim the fat out of their budget and try to squirrel away some savings. A person has to work a little harder to maintain their standard of living. But in the government we see the opposite. Why? Well, in government the incentives are all turned on their head. They know as well as we do the economy is tanked, but it doesn’t benefit them any to save. If they have money left over at the end of the month they don’t get to keep it. It gets taken out of their budget for next month. So if they aren’t using that money to buy votes, or live the high life, it goes to waste. The government is literally designed to fail.
