THIS BLOG IS MY BLOG. THIS BLOG IS MY BLOG. Welcome to the Home of Hyperopia.: Bureaucrats, Start Your Spendings ...

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Bureaucrats, Start Your Spendings ...




Holy crap. Catching up on some old news, I just read this article. What the hell is going on up there in Washington, D.C.?

This is Exhibit "[large number]" that the bureaucrats and politicians have become thoroughly disconnected from reality.

The key sentence in the article (to me) is:

  • At the request of the Bush administration, Congress increased the credit line [for credit cards carried by federal employees] to $250,000 as part of a massive Katrina recovery bill approved last week.

How many federal employees does this affect? Ah, I love symmetry.

It affects approximately 250,000 employees.

The article goes on to note that in response to criticism of the increased limit, the Bush administration implemented the following policy:

  • Purchases of more than $50,000 must be preapproved by a senior manager.

What are any of these employees going to buy that costs more than $50,000 for a single purchase? With a credit card? I hope the answer to that question is "nothing." Fifty thousand dollars is a HUGE sum of taxpayer dollars to be able to charge.

Executive director of the "watchdog group" Project on Government Oversight summarizes the problem thusly:

  • "[W]e have far too many people with far too much access to money without any organization or effective oversight," she said.

No kidding!

7 Comments:

Blogger Blogger said...

if you read more liberal blogs perhaps you would have known about this long ago:

http://tinyurl.com/84jy6

11:37 AM, October 02, 2005  
Blogger garrett said...

Equal Time! (But note, I'm reluctant to use the designation "liberal" or "conservative" to describe this blog. Your host has plenty of "liberal" ideas. He is just fairly convinced that governments are innately evil.)

Anyway, here, for your convenience, in HTML, is The Blog To Which Truth Girl Linked.
(I was hoping it was that tinyurl was going to take me to your blog, Truth Girl. What's the status these days?)

The above blog linked to a site that linked to this reasonably interesting letter from Rep. Waxman to somebody named Lewis. In it he cites several instances of flagrant abuse of federal government credit cards.

And then says the following funny sentence:

"In addition, most federal employees are not trained to make purchases of this magnitude to ensure that taxpayers get the best value for their money."

Hey, H. Waxman, I hope you are including elected representatives to Congress in this group!

Because of course this taxpayer certainly doesn't believe he is getting the best value for his money when you boys spend it.

1:31 PM, October 02, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If I may;

I would like to take this moment to promote the biggest thing to happen to me in quite a while...the release of Shiner 96. I beg you to rush out and buy this product, it is in limited supply for a limited time. This could be the finest Bavarian Style Ale I have ever tasted, and I have tasted quite a few. I beg you to try this product. God speed.

http://shiner.com/shiner_news/?p=7

11:18 AM, October 03, 2005  
Blogger garrett said...

I'm Not Going To Do This Every Time, but this is the link anonymous is recommending.

Come on, people. Learn to code in HTML. You won't regret it!

12:27 PM, October 03, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Buy the damn beer. Please. You will thank me.

3:03 PM, October 03, 2005  
Blogger Blogger said...

if you had a real blog, it would recognize weblinks and hyperlink them for you...

10:58 AM, October 10, 2005  
Blogger garrett said...

I can't afford a real blog. What an extravagance that would be!

4:39 PM, October 10, 2005  

Post a Comment

<< Home