One factor Individuals may be certain of: At any given time, someplace on the market, a authorities decision-maker is discovering new and ingenious methods of flushing your hard-earned money.
The most recent: Authorities watchdog OpenTheBooks discovered that the feds spent an eye-popping $4.6 billion on new furnishings and decorations for presidency buildings since October 2020, though solely half the federal workforce was persistently displaying up for work in individual as of final 12 months.
In 2023, the Authorities Accountability Workplace discovered that 17 of 24 federal businesses used 25% or much less of their headquarters’ buildings.
So the feds blew billions in taxpayer money on artwork that just about nobody will take a look at and furnishings that just about nobody will use.
It’s all the time simple to spend different individuals’s cash.
A number of the worst splurges:
- $250,000 price of Herman Miller chairs for the US Company for Worldwide Improvement places of work in Mozambique.
- $237,960 for 30 solar-powered picnic tables for the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
- $1.4 million on artwork and drawings for embassies.
- $39,000 for brand spanking new convention tables for The Nancy Pelosi Federal Constructing in San Francisco.
- $117,250 on 40 Ethan Allen recliners for the US embassy in Pakistan — or about $2,931 every. (And we doubt they bought a quantity low cost.)
In 2022, 37% of Individuals reported they wouldn’t be capable to scrounge collectively an additional $400 in an emergency, so it’s truthful to imagine most middle-class households couldn’t afford even one exorbitantly priced Ethan Allen chair, but Uncle Sam determined an embassy in Islamabad ought to be decked out with dozens of them.
Has nobody within the federal authorities ever heard of Ikea?
Past the particular waste here’s what it says in regards to the feds’ institutional allergy to something approaching fiscal duty.
Certain, places of work want purposeful chairs, and the case may be made for the occasional portray to spruce up a ready room.
However designer recliners, solar-powered picnic tables (powered for what, precisely?) and $200,000 trendy summary work aren’t remotely vital for the enterprise of working the nation.
However necessity doesn’t matter when you see the taxpayers as a bottomless piggy financial institution.
Belt-tightening? Extraordinary. Trying to find a deal? That’s for plebs. Looking for essentially the most economical possibility? Not my job.
Solely essentially the most luxurious, high-end, name-brand objects will do for the rear ends of our treasured public workers. (Those who trouble displaying up for work, anyway.)
No surprise the overwhelming majority of Individuals — 76%, based on a February Harvard-Harris ballot — help DOGE’s efforts to slash waste.
The feds’ furnishings splurge is extra proof that there’s no restrict to the outrageous abuse of taxpayer {dollars}; it’s mismanagement and monetary folly all the way in which down.
