Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
The Obama Administration's top cost-cutting official -- Martha Johnson, the head of the General Services Administration -- was forced to resign after a scathing Inspector General report revealed serious squandering of taxpayer funds.
GSA is the federal government's principal procurement agency. The idea is that by centralizing the procurement of office space, vehicles and supplies, the federal government will save funds and cut costs. What could go wrong?
According to Federal Times, GSA recently spent $822,000 on a conference in Vegas for only 300 employees. That included $147,000 for airfare and lodging for planning trips by conference organizers! I can't help but wonder if that figure includes other costs. I almost hope it includes gambling, cocaine and female entertainment at that price.
But here's my favorite part:
Among the other expenses were $3,200 for a mind reader; $6,300 on a commemorative coin set displayed in velvet boxes; and $75,000 on a training exercise to build a bicycle, according to the IG report, which was obtained by Federal Times.
GSA also promised the hotel an additional $41,480 in catering charges in exchange for the "concession" of the hotel honoring the government's lodging limit.
The agency also spent $44 a person per breakfast and $95 per person for its closing reception dinner.
The agency also spent money on mementos for attendees, clothing for GSA employees and tuxedo rentals, according to the report.
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May '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
You wouldn't want our ruling elites to scrimp at some dive and focus on work would you?
May '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
Milton Friedman's 4 ways to spend money:
1. You spend your own money on yourself.
2. You spend your own money on somebody else.
3. You spend somebody else's money on yourself.
4. You spend somebody else's money on somebody else.
I'd say Ms. Johnson was behind door #3 big-time.
Oct '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
Mollie, you don't have much regard for your reader's blood pressure, do you?
Feb '12
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
What was the mind reader's findings? For 32k the taxpayer has a right to know.. What goes on in the mind of a senior Obama official, or is that classified?
May '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
... a conference in Vegas for only 300 employees.
...and $75,000 on a training exercise to build a bicycle
If anyone deserves a bicycle constructed by 300 bureaucratic amateurs, it's our President.
Dec '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
Well, I do a LOT of traveling and have attended several different conferences over the years. $822K for 3oo people works out to $2740 per head - a not unheard of figure. The last one I attended had a registration price of $1500 and my flight & hotel came to $1200, so we're right in the ball park.
Some of the expenditures are ridiculous. The big question in my mind, however, would be who were the 300 attendees and how was the conference justified? I would imagine any company that I worked for that had debt levels commensurate with the US government's would have long ago banned all non-essential travel.
Apr '11
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
I'm sure the conference lasted several months. What's the problem?
Apr '11
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
Quote one:
"You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime."
Quote two, Feb 2nd, 2010:
"Responsible families don’t do their budgets the way the federal government does. Right? When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices. It’s time your government did the same. "
To be fair, in the first case he was talking to bankers, saying that they couldn't go to Vegas on the taxpayer's dime. It's only in one of those quotes that he promised that the government wouldn't do that.
Jun '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
Question: Did the planners lose their common sense or did they never have any?
I spent 25 years working for a large corporation which, until the last 4-5 years (after economic reality hit), had large, expensive conferences at really nice places (the Ritz at Laguna Niguel was the high point). I don't recall ever learning a single thing of consequence at any of them. The stuff that matters is usually learned when you have your butt in your chair at work.
They weren't worth much, but at least the shareholders were picking up the tab (and they could sell their shares). Sadly, as taxpayers, we can't opt out of American government and opt in to, say, New Zealand.
Edited on April 3, 2012 at 3:45amJun '11
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
Sounds like "investments in working people".
She probably got canned because it was Las Vegas.
Aug '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
We all learn from the past. American politicians have learned some from European history , but this level of dumb has found a different location. Asia, Africa, what can we possibly compare this bacchanal to ?
Is Detroit a country ?
Did they hire any strippers ?
( are they okay ?)
Edited on April 3, 2012 at 3:53amFeb '11
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
You gotta try hard to spend that kind of dough in Las Vegas. Airfare is cheap from almost anywhere in the country, and many off-strip hotels will heavily discount rooms when meeting space is booked. These goobs failed to pass the "what would this look like in the newspaper" test.
Dec '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
I order stuff for my shop and go through GSA as often as possible; how come I wasn't invited?!?
Jan '11
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
I wondered how much it cost to get Harry Reid reelected.
Sep '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
The bold face text is parody on stilts. Where will the mandatory annual training in entertainment prevention take place?
May '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
Pseudodionysius
The bold face text is parody on stilts. Where will the mandatory annual training in entertainment prevention take place? · 2 minutes ago
Why don't we ask the mind reader?
Dec '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
Mollie,
Does $17 trillion dollars in unfunded liability sound like somebody on a budget or the most psychotic spend-a-holic in Western Civilization.
I think Senator Sessions staff is still recovering from being forced to actually read ObamaCare.
Bravery above and beyond the call of duty.
Regards,
Jim
Edited on April 4, 2012 at 8:51amJun '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
This is a major blow for the "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" campaign...
Aug '10
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
Harry Reid has covered for her before. We tried to get her canned after she located a GSA office in an abandoned mall in KC in bad neighborhood, When she got called on the carpet , she spent qyarter million on PR, and was leasimg additional unused space downtown. This is what she learned at Yale. Obama demanded she be appointed GSA head over his buddies Emanuel Cleaver and Claire McCaskill's protests, choosing to criticize only the Republican senator Kit Bond who stood with his colleagues. Obama made it about his healthcare initiative, saying they were using Johnson as a stalking horse to go after his Obamacare.
Jul '11
Re: Top Obama Cost Cutter Resigns After $800,000 Vegas Spree
When compared to her bosses this lady is an absolute spend thrift.
Edited on April 3, 2012 at 1:37pm