Government can be pretty ridiculous. Case in point:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Hungry attendees at Justice Department conferences have been enjoying millions of dollars in meatballs and other goodies courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, according to an inspector general’s report released Friday.
The Justice Department paid more than $13,000 for cookies at conferences, says a report released Friday.
The report cited $5 meatballs and cans of soft drinks each costing $4.55 among reasons 10 conferences during 2005 and 2006 cost nearly $7 million.
This is absurd. When I worked at MDOT, there was among some people a strong sense of “This is the public’s money, let’s be careful with it.” Now I screwed around as much as the next guy, but I also reused my styrofoam cups, wrote on both sides of a sheet of paper, and turned off lights when I left the room. How could someone at any level of the chain of command accept that a catering company or whomever would charge $4.55 for the same can of Coke you can get for 50 cents from a vending machine?
During the upcoming Presidential election, there’s going to be a lot of talk among Republicans about ‘traditional conservative values,’ and ’small government.’ Let’s remember what THIS Republican administration’s Justice Department did and send them back to the Wal-Mart lobby for their cans of Coke.
1 Comment
September 19, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Where the hell do you buy a can of coke for $4.55?? Did it come on a ship from Africa? They should fire the secretary/intern who purchased these orders. S/he got swindled. I’m really baffled by this coke.
Now Darren, you know you weren’t that scrupulous with paper and cups. Although I don’t use taxpayers’ money, I am working at a place that supposedly has no grant money, and I do use like 3 cups a day and print 4 copies of my thesis.